The Tiny Fish Whales Cannot Live Without

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The future of whales, seabirds,
salmon, and even commercial

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fisheries may depend on fish most
people never even think about.

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This is the How to Protect the Ocean
podcast, your weekly 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 are talking about a strange
problem in ocean conservation.

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Why do we pay so little attention
to some of the most important

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fish in marine ecosystems?

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Because forage fish are essential.

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We've talked about it all week.

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Scientists know it, fisheries
managers know it, conservation

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groups know it, but most people
have never even heard of the term.

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And honestly, that may
be part of the problem.

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Ocean conservation often focuses
on large charismatic animals.

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We have whales, we have sharks,

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sea turtles, dolphins,
and that makes sense.

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People emotionally
connect to those species.

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They inspire documentaries,
campaigns, and donations.

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But ecosystems are not
built around popularity.

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They are built around relationships,
and forage fish sit near the center

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of many of those relationships.

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These small fish support predators
across entire ecosystems.

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But because they are small, probably
common-looking, and often commercially

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processed out of sight, they become
almost invisible to the public.

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That invisibility creates a conservation
challenge because public pressure

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often influences political priorities.

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And it is much harder to build urgency
around species people don't even

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recognize, especially when those
species are caught in massive industrial

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volumes far from public attention.

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In many ways, forage fish
suffer from a branding problem.

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But ecologically, they
are incredibly important.

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This matters because conservation
success often depends on protecting

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systems, not just individual species.

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You can protect whales all you want,
but if whales cannot find enough

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food, recovery becomes harder.

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You can create marine protected
areas, but if food webs become

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unstable, ecosystems still struggle.

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Forage fish force us to think
differently about conservation.

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They remind us that ecosystems depend
on abundance, not just survival.

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This is one reason scientists increasingly
support ecosystem-based management.

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The goal is not simply
preventing collapse.

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The goal is maintaining healthy,
functioning ecosystems, and that

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requires enough prey species in
the water to support predators.

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There is a public awareness issue here,
and a lot of people do not realize

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how interconnected ocean systems are.

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They may not understand that salmon,
seabirds, whales, and tuna often

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compete for the same prey resources,
and that industrial fishing can

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affect ecosystems in indirect ways.

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Once people understand those
connections, that conversation changes.

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Suddenly, forage fish
are no longer bait fish.

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They become ecosystem infrastructure,
and that framing actually matters.

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We're talking about communication here.

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And a lot of the times when we
talk about communication, we

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know that it's really important.

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And one of the things that I covered
last week was we know communication is

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important, but I had conversations over
the week where it's like communication

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isn't funded enough or at a level where
we can actually get communicators or

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marine influencers, science influencers,
and science communicators to say,

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" Hey, let's talk about forage fish.

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Let's talk about the real important
part of the ocean that will provide

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its stability, especially in warming
times like we have with climate change,

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or in times where fishing pressure
is at probably an all-time high, and

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we're starting to realize how important
those forage fish are." So, if you are

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interested in finding out more of how
you can communicate better and amplify

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your message better, whether it be about
forage fish or anything that's important

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to you and your organization, or your
company, or you're part of a larger

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academic project, or just in your academic
lab, hit me up at piscesoceans.ca.

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We have a tool there that I'll link
in the show notes where you can go

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on the website and you can figure
out where you need help the most.

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We're a consulting firm of scientists,
ocean communicators, and project

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managers that can help you with your
project and amplify your message.

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We understand the science.

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We understand how important science
communication is for you and

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your organization, your company,
and your project, and we want

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to make sure that it succeeds.

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So if you want to know more, go
to the show notes, click on that

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link, or go to piscesoceans.ca.

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The good news about all of this
is that awareness around forage

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fish conservation is growing.

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Researchers are improving
ecosystem science, which is great.

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Conservation groups are increasingly
pushing for precautionary

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management, which is also great.

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And more policymakers are starting
to recognize that ecosystem health

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requires protecting food web stability.

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But there are still some major challenges.

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Industrial demand for fish
meal and fish oil remains high.

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Climate change is
increasing ecosystem stress.

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And fisheries management
decisions are often involve

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political and economic trade-offs.

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So this issue is not going away.

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In fact, it may become one of the more
defining ocean conservation debates of

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the next decade because ultimately, this
conversation is bigger than forage fish.

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It is really about how humans
think about conservation and

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how humans think about the ocean.

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Do we only protect species that
people emotionally connect with?

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Or do we protect the systems that
make entire ecosystems possible?

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That is the much bigger question.

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And honestly, the one the ocean
urgently needs us to answer.

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One of the most memorable conversations
I had is when people were saying,

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"Hey, look, sometimes it's great to be
like, 'Hey, we're gonna protect sharks,

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we're gonna protect whales, we're
gonna protect sea turtles, we're gonna

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protect polar bears,' because those are
iconic species, the ones we emotionally

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connect with," like I mentioned earlier.

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But they're not necessarily the
ones that we need to focus on.

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Yes, we need to focus on it and a
lot of times they are in trouble.

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Sea turtles, most of them
are critically endangered.

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We have polar bears who
are critically endangered.

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North Atlantic right whale
is critically endangered.

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We have a lot of animals
that are in trouble.

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But a lot of the times it's not just
because of the individual species, and

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managing the individual species is not
gonna make things better right away.

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But managing the ecosystem as a whole
is going to make things better because

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you're gonna make sure that the foundation
is there for that whale, that sea

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turtle, that shark, that polar bear.

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Making sure that we are managing
everything together is important, but

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it's also the hardest thing, ' cause it's
also the hardest thing to communicate.

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Because it's like, if you want to lose
weight, you can eat nothing, no problem.

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That's a quick fix.

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But what you really have to do is you
have to look at your lifestyle, and

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you have to say, "If I want to hold this
weight off, or if I want to lose weight

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healthily, I have got to look at how I
eat, how I sleep, how my mental health

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is, how, like, my whole lifestyle is.

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Is it active?

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Is it sedentary?" We have all
these different ways of looking at

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health, and we do that when people
actually get healthy, they end

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up losing weight because they look
at their whole system and look at

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how to better protect that system.

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The same thing is with the ocean.

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We're not just protecting
individual species.

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If you protect the whole system, those
species are inevitably protected.

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So good conservation is often not about
protecting the most famous species.

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It's about protecting the system
underneath the species we love.

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So that's the episode for today.

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I would love to hear your comments
on these episodes, and I'd love for

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you to hear the episode tomorrow.

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You can go to speakupforblue.com/feedback
to let me know what you

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think about these episodes.

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Don't forget to go to our
sponsor, piscesoceans.ca.

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That's www.piscesoceans.ca.

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Link is in the show notes among
other links of how to get a hold of

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me to have conversations with me.

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More and more of you are reaching
out to me, and I love that.

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If you just love the podcast and
you wanna tell me, I love that.

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I always wonder who's listening to the
podcast, how they're listening to the

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podcast, what app they're listening on.

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Are they going to YouTube for Ocean
Decoded and all that kind of stuff?

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I want to know more.

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And what you want to know.

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Like, what topic do you
want me to cover next?

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I would love to hear
your thoughts on that.

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And don't forget, if you wanna
hear more and you haven't followed

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this podcast, shame on you.

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No, I understand.

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Don't worry about it.

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But if you wanna follow the podcast,
please do so now, and share

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this episode with somebody you
think is gonna enjoy this episode

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and learn more about the ocean.

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Thank you so much for joining
me on today's episode of the How

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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 when I
talk to Jack Daly from Oceana Canada,

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where we talk about forage fish report
that they just released for Canada.

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And it's not a good one, but
you're gonna wanna hear it.

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So thank you so much.

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Have a great day.

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We'll talk to you next time,
and happy conservation.