Saturday, March 09, 2013

The next fish war?


Cod? Mackerel? Tuna?

Will we start shooting over fish again?

You catch my bluefin and you'll be sorry. Or will we find new sorts of troubles?

Our next fish war will be over ...(hold your breath)... plankton. Those tiny ocean plants that turn sunlight into food.

There's barely enough plankton for the fish we catch today...and we want more.

More salmon and shrimp, more sushi, more fish fingers...and that means more plankton fished out of the sea.

Who cares? You do if you eat seafood or make a living from seafood. You care about plankton even if you don't know it.

Because your fish need plankton.

If somebody else steals your plankton...then they're stealing your fish.

It's a funny sort of fish war coming.

We'll fight to keep our plankton in the sea so that later we can catch our fish.

Fighting over fish is a straight up struggle, "these fish are mine."

The plankton war will be much trickier. If you want tuna you have to keep your plankton in the sea long enough to feed sardines or shrimp which feed mackerel and squid, which feed your tuna.

But watch out, I may get your plankton by catching my fish first.

So now you've got a new thing to worry about. Are you ready?

Next: who's vulnerable?



4 comments:

Fish said...

I'm totally agree with you, and maybe it's time to do something to change the world thinking.

Alex said...

I don't think everyone is truly aware how crucial plankton is as a food source for all the fish species that exist.

Without plankton, our environment would struggle to survive.

Ace said...

I'm ready o go to war when i see people on the bridges in the keys keeping under sized groupers..Man do i get upset.

stone said...

Hi Mark Powell , The image is too beautiful.