Ocean Predators Starve as Humans Plunder Oceans
Overfishing of smaller fish species is leading to widespread famine and even starvation among the ocean’s larger predators.
Scrawny dolphins, sea bass and whales are appearing on coastlines all over the world.
Fish-eating birds and other large mammal predators like seals and sea lions have also been found lacking food.
The starvation problem is being blamed to human depletion of these predators’ food stocks. Over the past several decades, fisheries around the world have collapsed, making it nearly impossible for large fishing operations to catch the large fish that most consumers want to eat.
Approximately 80 percent of all prey fish caught are not eaten by humans. Instead they are ground up into fish oil or meal as food for larger species in fish farms. It takes 11 pounds of food for a large fish to gain one pound of its own.
