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11 February 2014

Around the world study provides evidence of more fish than predicted

While I haven't always appreciated the nudges toward vegetarianism/veganism that come naturally with living in Ithaca, especially when they've come from some of the biology department professors, it is helpful to know about and understand the human culinary impact on the biosphere. In my oceanic islands class in the fall, we watched a documentary about how our appetites via overfishing and unsustainable fish farming are decimating the wild populations, and while it didn't prevent me from stocking up on seafood when I went back home, it was certainly something to think about. Without watching how and what we catch, we could be in big trouble.

Or are we? Some studies show a massive decline in stocks of certain species and locations, such as those featured in End of the Line, but a newly published study in Nature Communication suggests that those numbers are underestimating the number of mesopelagic fish. These fish, which include the highly prolific lantern fishes, live between 200m and 1000m below the surface of the water. Current estimates predict that fish in this zone make up about 1 billion tons of biomass - lanternfish alone account for more than 600 million tons of that
Picture from Emma Kissling on Wikimedia Commons via public domain.
Keep in mind that lanternfish like the one above range from 3 to 35cm, so even if we're talking 600 million tons of lanternfish biomass alone, that would mean at the very least 1.2 trillion fish, assuming that they're each a pound, and I highly doubt the 3cm ones are that heavy. Data from the Malaspinas Expedition (heads up: site is in Spanish) that tracked the biodiversity of the open and deep ocean in 2010-2011 is suggesting that estimate is only a tenth of what's actually out there. I know these fish aren't huge, but 12 trillion fish is a lot for one type of fish.

Moral of the story: start eating lanternfish fillets? Start catching; you're going to need a lot.

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