Fishing for Trouble

A Fishy Story

Beneath the serene beauty of our ocean waters lurks a nightmare worse than any Jaws movie. You could compare it to alien abduction – massive numbers of fish are being snatched out of the water by high-tech factory fishing trawlers. This nightmare scenario is real, and the impacts on our ocean’s ecosystems are extensive. Entire populations of fish are being targeted and destroyed, disrupting the food chain from top to bottom.

A Tiny Example of an Enormous Problem

Throughout the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding Atlantic waters, there lives a fish near the bottom of the food chain: it’s called the menhaden. It’s not a glamorous or beautiful fish, but this tiny creature supports an entire food chain that leads all the way up to whales in the Atlantic Ocean. And it is disappearing.

This once abundant fish has become the symbol of overfishing, and its loss could have a dramatic impact on our oceans.

If the menhaden is the symbol of overfishing, the Omega Protein company has become the symbol of corporate greed and excess in the fishing community. Omega’s high-tech factory ships have been locating menhaden schools and literally vacuuming them out of the water.

The fishiest part of this story is that it is just one example of many in our oceans today.

This summer, Greenpeace is focussing on a tiny fish in the Chesapeake Bay, to demonstrate a worldwide problem facing our oceans. Join us on our voyage to save the oceans.