Perhaps you've seen the ocean feeding frenzy—one of nature's
most dramatic spectacles: birds diving into water that boils
with slashing fish, sharks and sea lions; whales crashing out of
the depths with mouths agape. At the heart of this madness—the
cause of it all—are bite-size forage fish like herring,
mackerel, menhaden, or sardines. Packed with solar energy they
absorbed from eating plankton, the forage fish are delicious to
just about everything bigger than themselves. As Earthjustice
attorney Andrea Treece describes, they are "wheaties for whales
and powerbars for pinnipeds (seals and sea lions)." They are the
ocean's larder and, says Treece, "Salmon, tuna, swordfish,
halibut and even humpback whales need a fully stocked pantry to
survive." Problem is, these same forage fish are being
overfished to feed land-based creatures, bringing Earthjustice
into the fight to keep the ocean well-stocked. To understand the
role forage fish play, a little ocean ecology is helpful.
Everything in the ocean is food to s