The Silent Collapse of the Ocean’s Food Web: Why Shrinking Fish Signal a Global Crisis

Commercial fishermen and scientific agencies are warning that the ocean’s food web is starting to fail at its foundation. In regions like the Gulf of America, fish species that once weighed several pounds now often measure less than an ounce, while groundfish shrink and shellfish decline in quality with softer shells. At the same time, larger animals such as basking sharks and marine mammals are turning up starving on beaches, pointing to a deeper problem: plankton—the tiny organisms at the base of the food chain—have dropped by about 65%, disrupting everything from shrimp to tuna and threatening global fisheries, food security, and a key source of the planet’s oxygen.