If you take omega-3s seriously — and if you’re reading this, you probably do — 2026 is a year worth paying attention to. The global supply of fish oil, the raw material behind most omega-3 supplements on the shelf, is going through the most severe disruption the industry has seen in decades.
We want to walk you through what’s actually happening, because it explains a design decision we made a long time ago: why the ALP Protocol leans on krill oil, not fish oil alone.
It starts with one small fish, off the coast of Peru
Roughly half of the world’s crude fish oil for supplements, pharmaceuticals, and nutrition comes from a single source: the Peruvian anchovy fishery. When Peru’s catch falls, the entire omega-3 market feels it.
In 2026, it didn’t just fall. It collapsed.
- The 2026 fishing quota was cut 37% — from 3 million metric tons the prior year down to 1.9 million.
- Of that reduced quota, only about 25% was actually landed.
- The fat content of the anchovies caught dropped by roughly half, meaning even the fish that were harvested yielded far less oil.
Stack those together and the result is stark: the supply of human-grade crude fish oil fell from about 85,000 metric tons to roughly 10,000 — close to a 90% reduction in the material that ends up in supplements and pharmaceuticals. The season was even halted early because too many juvenile fish were showing up in the nets.
El Niño is pouring fuel on the fire
Layered on top of a bad fishing season is a developing El Niño — the natural climate cycle that warms the Pacific and pushes anchovy populations into deeper, harder-to-reach water.
History shows what that does to prices. Crude fish oil that sold for around $1,700 per metric ton in 2013 hit roughly $8,500 per metric ton during the 2023–2024 El Niño. The current event is forecast to be more severe, with prices pushing to new record highs.
For consumers, that pressure doesn’t stay hidden in a commodity market. During the 2023 event, some retail fish oil products jumped by double digits, and certain products rose more than 50%.
This isn’t just a bad year — it’s a structural shift
Here’s the part that matters most. A single rough season is a cyclical problem; supply usually bounces back. But the fish oil story is becoming a structural one.
Global wild fish catches have been trending down for decades — from more than 30 million metric tons in the mid-1990s to under 25 million today. At the same time, demand for omega-3s (EPA and DHA) is climbing on every front: aquaculture, an aging population, pharmaceutical prescriptions, the pet-supplement boom, and rising middle-class demand across Asia.
When you chart flat-to-declining supply against steadily rising demand, the lines cross. Industry modeling projects demand could begin outstripping supply as early as 2027, with a shortfall of around 160,000 metric tons by 2031.
In plain terms: fish oil is getting scarcer, pricier, and less predictable — and that’s unlikely to reverse.
Why the ALP Protocol Is Built Around Krill
We didn’t build the protocol around krill oil because of this year’s headlines. We built it that way because krill was always the more resilient, more bioavailable foundation. The 2026 supply crunch just makes the reasoning obvious.
Krill comes from a different ocean, under different rules. Krill oil is harvested from Antarctic waters, not the Peruvian coast — completely outside the El Niño supply risk that’s hammering anchovy. The fishery is tightly managed and certified, with harvests taking under 1% of the available krill biomass each year. That’s a fundamentally more stable supply chain.
It held its price when fish oil didn’t. Through the same disruptions that sent fish oil products up double digits, krill oil products stayed notably stable. Resilient sourcing shows up as a more predictable shelf price.
Your body may use it better. Krill delivers its omega-3s (EPA and DHA) in phospholipid form, which mimics the structure of your own cell membranes and supports absorption — and it comes bundled with choline and the antioxidant astaxanthin in a single ingredient.
Fish oil still has its place — as part of a system. We’re not anti-fish-oil. High-quality fish oil is part of the ALP Protocol A+ plan for a reason. The point isn’t to pick one fish over another; it’s to stop depending on a single, increasingly fragile source for something as important as your daily omega-3s. Pairing krill with fish oil is what makes the protocol both effective and durable.
The takeaway
The fish oil market is entering an era of scarcity and volatility. You’ll likely see it in prices, in occasional out-of-stocks, and in quiet reformulations across the supplement aisle over the next few years.
The good news: a well-designed omega-3 routine doesn’t have to be at the mercy of one anchovy season off the coast of Peru. That’s exactly what the ALP Protocol was built to avoid.
Sources: Industry supply and pricing data as reported in Aker BioMarine’s 2026 “Fish Oil Supply Disruption” whitepaper, drawing on IFFO, GOED, TASA, OECD-FAO, and UN population data. Supply/demand projections are industry model estimates.
