April 1, 2012 – The smallest fish in the sea are more than twice as valuable when they’re eaten by bigger fish than when they’re caught by humans, according to a report released Sunday by a scientific task force.
The 120-page analysis by the Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force — a group of 13 scientists specializing in everything from fish ecology to marine mammals and seabirds — underscores the growing concern researchers have about the fate of forage fish, including anchovies, mehaden, herring and sardines that serve as food for bigger fish, sea birds and marine mammals.
Forage fish account for 37 percent of the world’s commercial fish catch, with an annual value of $5.6 billion. (Only 10 percent of forage fish caught are eaten by humans; the remaining 90 percent are processed into fish meal and fish oil, which feed livestock and farmed fish.)
But the team of scientists, who worked for three years on their analysis, concluded that forage fish support $11.3 billion worth of commercial fish by serving as their prey. In the North Sea, for example, sand eels help sustain cod, and tuna in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean feed on sardines.
The group’s economic analysis did not include the value forage fish provide to sea birds and marine mammals, many of which are highly dependent on them. University of Washington conservation biologist Dee Boersma, one of the task force’s members, has conducted studies showing that the breeding success of Magellanic penguins is directly related to how far they had to forage for food. If they could find fish between 30 and 50 miles of their colony they produced two chicks; if they had to travel more than 90 miles away, they had one; and if they had to go 125 miles, they had none.
In an interview, Boersma said that with fewer forage fish, seabirds were having to travel farther for less food. “Suddenly, instead of 90 percent, you’re settling for 10 percent. That’s what’s happening to seabirds. When fish is not there, they don’t do as well.”
Read the full story at the Washington Post.