Author: Zhou Jinfeng, Zhang Siyuan, Song Qiyu, Wang Qinan
Source: Knowledge is Power magazine
Lift the tuna
What comes to mind?
Tuna rice balls in convenience stores
Image source: Baidu Encyclopedia
Canned tuna in ordinary people's meals?
Or the nobility in Japanese cuisine?
sashimi
But you wouldn't think that humans are only for their own appetite, and more than 97% of bluefin tuna are caught before the age of 3, and then served on the table and become a popular food for human beings.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the number of tuna caught in the world each year is close to 6 million tons. Strong demand, coupled with the sheer number of fishing vessels, put tuna stocks under enormous pressure.
Bluefin tuna that didn't grow up
Bluefin tuna is an oceanic migratory fish, the largest species of tuna, and is also a collective term for several tuna with blue fins that live in different waters. They are found in temperate and tropical waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans and are at the top of the marine food chain.
They are lean, with their tail fins crossed like a torpedo with a sports car's tail fin, and they also have an "automatic body temperature constant function" – due to the rich network of blood vessels on both sides of the body, they can keep their body temperature above the surrounding water temperature. These advantages allow them to win the "swimming speed champion" in different water layers in the ocean, and at the same time, they can not be afraid of "high energy consumption" to keep the vital signs functioning normally, and if the great white shark wants to hunt them, it must also be prepared to undergo the double test of endurance and speed.
However, bluefin tuna does not dominate the ocean. The natural lifespan of these large fish is about 50 years, but their own growth and reproduction is very slow, more than half of the bluefin tuna can not mature until 4 years after birth, and can only breed offspring after maturity, of which Atlantic and southern bluefin tuna even take 8-12 years to mature. The tragic reality is that because of humans, more than 97% of bluefin tuna are caught before the age of 3, and then served on the table and become a popular food for human beings.
Without wolves in the steppes, many herbivores lose their natural predators and multiply and nibble on vegetation, as do the oceans. On the one hand, bluefin tuna, with its speed and size advantages, can prey on small fish and crustaceans, avoiding the rapid reproduction of these underlying species and endangering the marine ecological balance; on the other hand, the extinction of this apex species will not only cause the endless catastrophic growth of some fish, but also further cause ocean acidification, which may lead to marine desertification.
As the apex of the food chain, humans have had a huge impact on many creatures. It's not wrong to eat, but it's worth reflecting on the fact that the animal population is getting smaller and smaller in order to eat it — we should learn to "subtract" from the menu and be merciful.
Little Grass Sparrow Kills "Quadruple Jump"
The scientific name of the grass finches is the yellow-breasted bunting (wù), and a small piece of bright yellow feathers on the chest makes them more recognizable although similar in size to sparrows. They prefer to inhabit low hills and open plains. During the non-breeding season and winter, they also like to flock, and can even form a "large army" of 3500-7000 animals. They feed mainly on small insects and plant fruits, and are vigilant and timid.
However, these small guys are small guardians of the farmland. Their activities and habitat are inseparable from farmland, and as the national "three haves" (beneficial, economically valuable, and scientifically researchable) wild animals, they also play a considerable role in ensuring crop safety. According to observational statistics, the number of pests foraging in 1 year by 1 grass finches is equal to the sum of the number of pests killed by 5 farmers in 1 year. However, they once spread like sparrows, and now they are hard to find. What caused this dramatic change?
One word: eat.
Because of the influence of the bad habit of "eating wild", and the gimmick of "heavenly ginseng" that was forcibly put on, the grass flower sparrow became the object of human consumption. In 2001 alone, more than a million sparrows were reported to be on the table.
However, in more than a decade, the large number of human predation has reduced the population of grass finches by 99%, and in the IUCN Red Species List, its endangered level has changed from non-dangerous to vulnerable, to endangered, and now it has become critically endangered, completing the deadly "quadruple jump" at a rare speed, shocking the world, and if this situation continues to deteriorate, the next step awaits them is wild extinction and eventual total extinction.
Ecology online for you and me it
Earth has experienced five mass extinctions, and the dominant dinosaurs completely disappeared in the fifth mass extinction. Now, humanity is in the midst of the sixth mass extinction process, with a large number of species disappearing at an unprecedented rate. Unlike the previous five, the sixth mass extinction was not due to "natural disasters" but because of "man-made disasters.".
The colorful variety of flora and fauna constitutes what we call biodiversity. It is precisely because of the existence of the earth's biodiversity that human beings can eat, wear, live, live, and even live and live. For example, bees, accounting for more than 90% of the world's total food more than 100 kinds of crops, there are about 70 species of bees need bees pollination, so the existence of bees, not only can provide sweet honey for humans, but also related to the food security production on which human beings depend for survival.
In addition, there are pangolins, their scales are used as medicinal materials, and some people believe that their flesh quality also has a great tonic effect, and the dual demand for medicinal use + food makes pangolins face global encirclement. According to incomplete statistics from the Pangolin Working Group of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, in 2019 alone, domestic customs have confiscated 123.477 tons of illegally smuggled pangolin scales. However, driven by interests, people have ignored that pangolins are the natural enemies of termites, and the forests in which they exist can be protected from the scourge of termites, thus ensuring the safe habitat of other species in the forest, avoiding soil erosion and flying sand and dust caused by the destruction of forests.
In nature, everything is connected and symbiotic, forming a healthy and delicate balance of ecosystems. As long as one of the links is broken, it is bound to affect the whole body and affect the stability of the ecosystem as a whole. Humans are also part of the ecosystem, and the indiscriminate consumption of other animals will eventually affect human beings themselves.