Scientists, Regulators Look to Save Smaller Fish in Marine Food Chain
Rising global demand for seafood and fish meal could put pressure on small fish
August 24, 2011
A school of Pacific Jack Mackerel off Santa Catalina Island
Perhaps you've had salmon, tuna, or swordfish for dinner recently. Or maybe it's on the menu tonight. Every big fish that lands on your plate got that big by eating lots of little fish. If you don't have abundant small fish in the ocean, you won't have the big fish.
That's why scientists, fishery managers and advocacy groups are paying more attention to the small prey in the world’s oceans. Some environmental groups also want tighter regulation on ocean catches of these smaller fish, and that's making fishermen nervous.
Fisheries biologist Jen Zamon learned lots of things in graduate school, but how to get a newly-captured seabird to barf in a bucket was not one of them. She finds squirts of warm water down the gullet and squeezing the tummy does the trick.
NOAA biologists, including Tiffanie Cross, coax a common murre into regurgitating its dinner of forage fish.
Zamon and her team from the NOAA research station in Warrenton, Oregon, want to know what fish the diving birds at the mouth of the Columbia River are eating.
"Yeah, it's definitely anchovies," she says after examining the vomit.
The day before, Zamon says, the vomit samples mostly contained half-digested surf smelt. Other examples of prey fish include sardines, herring and mackerel.
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