All the little fishies

I was listening to Fresh Air the other day, as I am apt to do on my way home from work. She was interviewing some fisheries expert. He had a funny name, can’t remember it right now. But he was talking about how the oceans are being overfished. We’re catching and eating them faster than they can reproduce. He also talked about how they went and changed the names of some fish to make them sound better. Orange Roughy? Used to be called Slime Head. Reminds me of when I was a little kid, and mom wouldn’t let me outta the house without putting on about a pint of Dippity-Do on my hair, to make it lie down. As I recall, it didn’t smell half bad, though.

Anyways, we’re also eating fish that no one used to eat as well. Mentioned monk fish. I think it was monk fish, he said. Said that hardly anyone ever sees it with its head on, cause if you did, you sure as hell wouldn’t eat it.

Now, I’m not a real big fish eater. Oh, I like my sushi enough. But hardly ever get to eat it cause it’s so damn expensive. And the only other fish I really like is trout. But they’re raised in fish farms, or at least I think they are.

So who’s eating up all the damn fish? He talked about the delicate balance in the ocean, how the fish they are catching out normally eat smaller fish. With fewer predators, the smaller fish population is growing like crazy, and eating more plankton, which normally takes care of all the algae. With little or no plankton to eat the algae, it’s starting to take over parts of the ocean. Kinda like when I used to have a swimming pool, and I let the water sit over the winter without treating it. Not a pretty sight.

So what can you do to help? Stop eating fish, for chrissakes! What the hell is wrong with a nice rib-eye? Or better yet, go vegan. I probably could, if I wanted to. But would be kinda hard to pull off in my house, since K doesn’t hardly eat any vegetables, and S? none at all. Unless you count refried beans, which don’t really qualify as vegetables. Not in my book, anyways. They’re legumes, dammit!