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The Tiny Fish Holding the Ocean Together Are at Risk · How To Protect The Ocean

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  As the ocean warms, some of the species holding marine ecosystems together may be
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  tiny fish most people never think about.
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  This is the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast, your weekday ocean news update.
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  If you care about staying informed on the ocean every weekday, hit
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  that follow button right now so you don't miss tomorrow's story.
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  Today, we're talking about climate change, ecosystem resilience, and why forage
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  fish may become one of the most important conservation stories of the next decade.
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  Because climate change is not just affecting polar bears and coral reefs.
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  It's changing entire food webs.
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  And forage fish are right at the middle of that shift.
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  So why are these tiny fish becoming even more important in a warming ocean?
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  That's really the question to ask, isn't it?
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  And what happens when climate stress collides with
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  already pressured ecosystems?
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  Let's talk about it.
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  Forage fish are highly sensitive to environmental conditions, and that
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  includes ocean temperature, plankton availability, oxygen levels, ocean
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  currents, a lot of different things.
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  Even small environmental shifts can affect where these fish live, how
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  successfully they reproduce, and whether predators can find them.
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  Marine heatwaves are a major example.
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  During extreme warming events, plankton production can change dramatically.
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  Because forage fish feed heavily on plankton, these populations
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  can also shift or decline.
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  That creates a chain reaction.
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  And if forage fish move farther offshore, predators may struggle to keep up.
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  If populations crash temporarily, predators may suddenly lose
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  access to a major food source.
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  And scientists are already seeing signs of this actually happening.
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  In some regions, seabird colonies have experienced breeding failures
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  linked to forage fish shortages.
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  Adult birds simply cannot find enough food for their chicks.
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  Same with whale feeding grounds are also shifting as prey distributions change.
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  Some other things that are happening, you know, you look to see salmon
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  populations in certain areas are dealing with increasingly unstable food
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  conditions during their life stages.
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  So we're seeing that shift in foods in terms of the whole parameters of shifting
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  baselines and everything that's happening.
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  But then there's also another thing that we rarely talk
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  about, and that's upwellings.
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  Upwellings can shift in where they are going to be, 'cause an upwelling is
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  essentially this current that comes from the deep oceans, brings nutrients
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  to the top, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and that will attract forage fish.
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  Those forage fish will come in, and then, of course, their predators
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  are gonna come in, whales, sea turtles, tuna, salmon, cod.
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  Depending on where they are around the world, you get a
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  lot of fish that are coming in.
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  Seabirds, sharks, all these different prey and predator interactions
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  will happen during that time.
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  And that's on different multiple stages.
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  Now, if those upwelling shift, and they shift outside of migration
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  routes, or they shift outside of regular areas that they're normally
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  gonna be, you're gonna see a shift in where those forage fish are gonna go.
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  And you're gonna see a shift in where those predators are gonna
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  go, but there's gonna be some loss of life because of that chaos that
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  happens as shifting baselines happen.
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  And that's something that you don't want to see.
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  So what makes forage fish so important is that they connect the lower ocean
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  productivity to larger predators.
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  They stabilize the ecosystems, just like I talk about how diversity
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  stabilizes ecosystems, which means when ecosystems become stressed,
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  forage fish become even more critical.
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  This matters because climate resilience is not just about
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  protecting species individually.
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  It is about protecting ecosystem function.
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  Healthy ecosystems need strong food webs.
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  They need enough species to absorb environmental stress.
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  Think about it like financial savings.
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  I know.
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  Why are we getting into finance?
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  But just trust me on this.
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  If an ecosystem has abundant forage fish populations, predators have a buffer
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  during difficult environmental periods.
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  But if forage fish populations are already heavily reduced from
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  industrial fishing or habitat stress, ecosystems become more fragile.
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  There's less margin for error.
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  So that means climate impacts can hit harder and faster.
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  And this is especially important because climate change is creating
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  more unpredictability in the ocean.
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  Species are shifting northward because they can go in warmer waters.
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  Seasonal timing is changing.
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  Migration patterns are becoming less reliable, which we're seeing with
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  the North Atlantic right whale when they start to go up to the Gulf of
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  St. Lawrence and where they saw more death because of human impacts.
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  And predators are increasingly competing for food resources that may
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  no longer be consistently available.
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  Now, one concept scientists talk about is timing mismatches.
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  As an example, predators arrive at traditional feeding grounds expecting
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  large schools of forage fish,
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  but warming conditions may have shifted the timing or the
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  location of those forage fish.
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  That means predators show up at the wrong place at the wrong time.
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  And in nature, timing matters, and it can be a heavy consequence if you show
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  up at the wrong place at the wrong time.
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  And before we continue on what happens next, I wanna just talk to
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  you a little bit about how this is all involved in communication.
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  Now, as I'm communicating this to you right now about forage fish, about the
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  fish that nobody talks about or nobody really understands, and how important
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  it is to stabilize an ecosystem, communication is really important, not
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  just for your organization, not just for you as a science communicator.
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  It's important for everybody to understand what is happening in the ocean.
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  And we can't just communicate through peer-reviewed papers because they
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  are behind those walls, those science journal walls that cost
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  forty dollars a paper just to get.
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  And not everybody knows a professor or the academic author
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  who actually puts this together.
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  And so what we really need here is we need people to help us
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  out with science communication.
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  And I work for Pisces Oceans.
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  I'm the ocean communications manager, and we help organizations, academic projects
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  and for-profit companies to get their message out and amplify that message.
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  We look at the strategy of who they're messaging, their target audience, what
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  they're trying to say, why it matters.
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  We have scientists, we have ocean communicators, we have project managers.
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  The whole slew of people in one consulting firm, and we wanna help you.
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  So if you want more information and you wanna find out how you can get
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  help from us, go to piscesoceans.ca.
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  That's piscesoceans.ca.
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  I'll put the link in the show notes and fill out the little tool that
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  I link to so that you can find out where you need help the most.
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  All right, let's get back to our show.
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  Let's talk about what happens next.
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  This is where more scientists and conservation groups are arguing that
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  protecting forage fish should be part of a climate change adaptation
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  policy, not just fisheries policy.
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  There's a major shift in this thinking because for years,
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  climate adaptation discussions focused heavily on infrastructure,
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  emissions, and coastal protection.
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  Those issues absolutely matter.
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  But ecosystems also need biological resistance.
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  And that often starts at the bottom of the food web.
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  Some fisheries managers are already incorporating climate
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  data into stock assessments.
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  Others are exploring more precautionary catch limits during warming periods.
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  Researchers are also using ecosystem models to better
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  understand how climate stress affects predator-prey relationships.
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  But there's still uncertainty in everything that goes on.
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  Climate systems are changing quickly, and forage fish populations can fluctuate
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  naturally even without human pressure.
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  That makes management extremely difficult.
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  Still, one thing is becoming increasingly clear.
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  If ecosystems are going to survive accelerating climate stress, they
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  need strong foundations, and forage fish are part of that foundation.
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  Climate change is testing the resilience of ocean ecosystems, and
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  the species helping hold those systems together may be the smallest
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  fish in the sea, the forage fish.
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  So it's important to get to know more about these forage fish.
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  And if you've been listening for the last three episodes, this is our fourth
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  episode that we do on forage fish, you're gonna wanna hear the next episode where
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  we talk to Jack Daly from Oceana Canada, where they just released a report on
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  the state of forage fish in Canada.
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  I'll be honest, it's not that great, and you're gonna wanna hear why, but
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  the report is really laid out well.
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  It's got a number of different stories from a number of different rights
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  and stakeholders, and I think it's really important to listen to that
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  conversation that I had with Jack Daly.
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  So if you want to know more about what's the conversation is gonna be,
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  I want you to follow this podcast, How to Protect the Ocean podcast, so you
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  get tomorrow's episode and your weekly ocean news update from Monday to Friday,
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  where we do an interview on Friday, and we set you up to success for that
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  interview on Friday by going Monday to Thursday solo episodes like I'm doing
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  right now to explain and prepare you for what we're gonna be talking about
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  so you have a better understanding of what's gonna happen on Friday.
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  I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
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  How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
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  Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you tomorrow, and happy conservation.