Menhaden


            An interesting topic I learned about in one of my other classes was the overfishing of Menhaden. Menhaden are a keystone species, and are often fished for the use of their oils, but not for consumption by humans. The issue with the overfishing of this species is caused by their diets and the zooplankton they consume. Most fish in the Atlantic consume phytoplankton, but the menhaden consume zooplankton, and if they continue to be overfished then the zooplankton populations will rise, which in turn causes algal blooms and red zones in large bodies of water, which is negative for many different species. This was interesting to learn about because of the impact one species can have on a whole ecosystem.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Judaism and Ecology (outside reading)

While looking up specific religions and their concepts of environmentalism based on their religious beliefs, I stumbled across the "J ewish Values on Climate Change & Energy" posted by a Religious Action Center of Judaism. They had similar views to the Catholics, which were that in Genesis we were given the land and told to protect and watch over it (Genesis 2:15). They also argued that the Talmudic concept bal tashchit, "do not destroy," was able to be used in conjunction with the argument that all land was God's, to decide that any act that destroyed the land was an act directly against God. They also used " Justice, justice shall you pursue" (Deuteronomy 16:20) to argue that the countries that are more responsible for climate change should be held to that problem, and therefore in charge of finding a solution. If poor countries are forced to bear the brunt of climate change (perhaps they are poor because their economy is majorly based on agricul...
Read more

Appalachia

In just a few short weeks I will be embarking on a two week journey on the Appalachian trail. This journey will take me through the hills of Tennesse and Virginia. On this trip I will be joined by classmates but leaving behind technology. In this journal I just wanted to share what my hopes are for the class and what I can learn about the spirituality of the trail. First, I'd love to have this journey teach me how to be less dependent on my phone. Hopefully being in nature like this will show me that it really is not necessary. The second thing I'd like to try to find on the trail a little bit more of myself. I'm dying to know what I will discover about myself and if I will see things in a different light after it. Overall, I'm incredibly excited just to experience something so pure and exciting at the same time.
Read more

Morality in Religion

Many of the world’s environmental problems come from human choices. In an article I read, an anthropologist relates human ecology to our emotions, and states that are our environmental choices are based on our emotions and our reasoning. Environmental management such as deforestation tactics can also be based around morality and making ethical choices, which religion has a powerful influence over. Many religions stem from the notions of making ethically right decisions, as they believe supernatural beings gave them the natural world such as forests and it is their obligation to take care of it.
Read more