Sneed, Annie. “Regulators Put Limits on Fish No One Wants To Eat.” Scientific American Blog Network. N.p., 23 Aug. 2016. Web. 10 Sept. 2016.
There has been a limit put on how much “forage fish” will be caught. These fish are not eaten by humans, but they are eaten by fish such as tuna, sea-bass, and halibut. They eat single celled plankton, at the bottom of the food chain, making them the middlemen between the bigger fish and the plankton. As people seafood intake increases, these fish will be processed into fish meal and fish oil. The potential consequences of having these fish go extinct is too high.
This relates to Environmental Science, because these forage fish are part of a very meticulously constructed ecosystem. If they go extinct then so will some species of fish who only eat forage fish as their meals. This can have tragic consequences on the Ecosystem. This will also allow single-celled plankton to increase, which would not be good for ocean health.
This is just a thought, but could letting the plankton populations go unchecked be another cause of eutrophication?
Yes it would, because that would increase the BOD, which would in turn decrease the amount of oxygen for other living things. Thank you for reading my article.