Sometimes it takes fear to incite change and what’s going on in our oceans is certainly frightening enough to get you rethinking the ways our over-consumption has affected the underwater world. If we don’t change our ways soon we’re facing a future where swarms of oversized jellyfish rule the seas and—brace yourselves—there’s no more sushi.

The biggest problem in our oceans today is extreme overfishing, to the point that some researchers have estimated the planet could run out of seafood by 2048 if we continue to consume at the rates we are now. While the end of fresh-from-the-ocean food as we know it would have some effect on the American diet, in other countries it could be downright devastating through lost livelihoods and crucial food sources. But all that overfishing doesn’t just mean fish are disappearing, it also means that jellyfish are appearing in ever increasing amounts—and sizes.

Without fish around to eat small jellyfish and compete with jellyfish for their food sources, the jellyfish population has been rapidly expanding and the jellyfish themselves have been doing the same. The boosted numbers of jellyfish have resulted in swarms of jellyfish destroying entire fish farms (jellyfish like fish eggs and larvae) and jellyfish the size of sumo wrestlers. Scientists are even warning about frightening increases in the highly-poisonious box jellyfish species, which could actually result in human harm as the toxic creatures move closer to shorelines to look for diminishing food supplies. There’s nothing like an incredibly venomous creature with four brains and 24 eyes to get you thinking about how we can work to rebalance our oceans, is there?

The good news is that if overfishing is acknowledged and dealt with soon, the fish population could be quickly improved and that would also mean that the jellyfish population would be kept in check. But it will have to be a universal effort and that means we all need to do our part. A good first step is to get educated about what fish you should be eating (or not eating) and what you should look for on seafood labels. You can find lots of helpful information at the Oceana site, or, if you like cinematic learning, check out the documentary End of the Line narrated by Ted Danson, who is a founding board member of Oceana. Going green in other areas of your lifestyle will help the ocean too, as our carbon emissions contribute to the imbalances in our seas and, in turn, contribute to dwindling ocean life.

Powered by Bookmarkify™