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Activity: Sustainable Seafood http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/education/ Inspiring ocean literacy and conservation through National Marine Sanctuaries Lesson Plan Empty Oceans FOCUS Issues in the ocean Sustainable Seafood TEACHING TIME FOCUS QUESTIONS 2-3 class periods of 45-55 minutes How does the human population affect the population of marine species? SEATING ARRANGEMENT What can citizens do to sustain seafood Flexible populations? MAXIMUM NUMBER OF STUDENTS LEARNING OBJECTIVE 30 Given the information from the Seafood Watch cards, the students will create a KEY WORDS poster to: Sustainable (seafood) • explain what contributes to Bycatch unsustainable fishing practices and Habitat habitat damage. Longlining • explain how citizens can help sustain Bottom trawling seafood populations Trawling/Dredging Gillnetting GRADE LEVEL Purse Seining 6-8 (Life Science/Earth Science) Threatened species Endangered species MATERIALS Over-fishing Computer with internet access (Note: all information can be pre- BACKGROUND INFORMATION downloaded and printed) In the previous lesson, the students learned Monterrey Bay Aquarium Seafood about food chains, the food web, and the Watch cards: National and Regional effect of the removal of large amounts of Chart paper biomass from a species. In this lesson, Markers students will learn how pieces of the Sample charts and graphs ocean food web, fish, are being removed faster than they can be replenished and AUDIO VISUAL MATERIALS how they can become informed Overhead or PowerPoint presentation of: consumers to promote sustainable Sample charts and graphs seafood. Fishing methods http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/education/ Inspiring ocean literacy and conservation through National Marine Sanctuaries Around the world, fisheries are threatened monkfish, orange roughy, and Chilean with collapse due to unsustainable fishing seabass. methods and ecosystem destruction. There are a variety of factors affecting the However, there are actions citizens of all oceans and its inhabitants around the ages can take to help reverse the decline. United States. Bycatch, habitat damage, The Monterey Bay Aquarium has and over-fishing are the primary causes in developed regional and national Seafood recent times of the decline in species in Watch cards to guide consumers toward the aquatic environment. Bycatch results seafood choices that are sustainable from fishing methods, such as longlining (balance fishing practices with species and bottom trawling, which use very large reproduction). The cards give information nets to sweep through the water. about the best choices for seafood, good Fishermen target a certain species, but the alternatives if the best are not available, nets and lines catch any marine life in their and seafood to avoid. Best seafood path. This is a significant problem for choices include fish that are sustainably threatened and endangered marine harvested using gear that allows for the species. Turtles, whales, and dolphins least harm to the species’ population and often become entangled in nets and lines to the environment. The information on that hinder their ability to catch food or the cards is updated regularly. prevent them from surfacing to breath PREPARATION Habitat damage is evident in various Download the National Seafood Watch ecosystems along the coastal United card and the corresponding card for your States. Coastal waters suffer from the region of the United States at constant population growth along the http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodw coasts. Bottom trawling drags nets over atch/download.asp. the seafloor to catch fish, scallops, sea (Note: You may also request wallet-size urchins, and crustaceans, but the nets and cards by contacting your nearest National the rockhopper gear damage coral and Marine Sanctuary.) places where fish feed and breed. Download the “Issues” summaries at Between 1950 and 1994, commercial http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodw fishermen increased their catch by 400% atch/sfw_issues.asp. to keep up with the growing demand for seafood. Since 1989, the oceans have Download the fact sheets or cards about been over-fished (fish are caught faster Fishing and Farming Methods at than they can reproduce). However, new http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodw boats are set into the waters every year atch/sfw_gear.asp#top. around the world. Examples of over-fished species include: cod, sharks, bluefin tuna, Prepare sample charts and graphs for many types of West Coast rockfish, overhead projector or PowerPoint presentation. http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/education/ Inspiring ocean literacy and conservation through National Marine Sanctuaries LEARNING PROCEDURE 3. Have students gather back with their original groups of four and share all the Introduction: information on the fishing methods. Separate the students into groups of four. Discuss the information using the questions Have them brainstorm what they know below as a guide. Emphasize that as the about the fish they eat, such as the names demand for seafood has grown and of the fish, where and how they were fishing technology has improved, caught, and any other information they fishermen have become better at know about the fish, such as its catching fish. The United States regulates abundance in the ocean. After the fishing to try to help fish stocks recover, but brainstorming session, have each group many other countries do not. record their information on a chart, and bring the class back together to share • What surprised you the most in your ideas. research? • Which fishing method is the least Lesson: harmful to the environment? To the Activity A: Issues and Fishing Methods non-targeted species (bycatch)? Why? • Which fishing method is the most 1. Separate the class into groups of four harmful to the fish? To the bycatch? for a jigsaw activity. Have each student Why? visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood • Why are fishermen using the harmful Watch website to learn about the issues methods if they cause damage? surrounding seafood and the fishing gear • How do these fishing actions affect the used to catch seafood. Have each sustainability of the resource? student take notes on one Issue. Then, have students each research and take Activity B: Fish in Your Area notes on one fishing method. You may want to choose the issue and the fishing 1. Divide the students into small groups (2- method for the students to balance 4 each). Have students develop a groups. If computer accessibility is a research project to answer the following problem, the information can be printed questions: and distributed to the students in hard • Where are fish sold in your community? copy format. (i.e. list all the local supermarkets, fish markets, local restaurants) 2. When the students are finished taking • What are the top five types of fish sold notes on the issue and fishing method, at each place? have all the students with one method or • Where does the fish come from? issue (e.g. the Dredgers) group together • How is it caught? and share their information. • What is the price of each fish at each location? • What is the most popular fish species? http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/education/ Inspiring ocean literacy and conservation through National Marine Sanctuaries • What is the frequency of different fish CONNECTIONS TO OTHER SUBJECTS species in the markets? English/Language Arts; Social Studies; • Which of these species are facing Geography overfishing pressures? This information can be found on the Monterey EVALUATION Aquarium Seafood Watch site. 1. Formative Evaluation: Evaluate the group work in progress, the related 2. Have students represent this data in presentation, and the research project. graphs and charts to present to the class. 2. Summative Evaluation: There are seven Each presentation should interpret the species of fish that appear on all the data and explain the implications of the regional and the national Seafood Watch amount and type of fish consumed in the cards (Chilean Seabass/Toothfish; Orange community on the sustainability of the Roughy; Salmon – farmed, including species. Atlantic; Sharks; Shrimp – imported, farmed, or trawl-caught; Swordfish; and 3. Have students write letters to an area Bluefin Tuna). Have each student pick a business establishment presenting what species to research (not one identified in they have learned and actions they would the group project). They should answer like to see the business take to help the following questions on a poster or in a promote sustainability. PowerPoint presentation. A graphic representation of the fish should be THE BRIDGE CONNECTION included. www.vims.edu/bridge/--Click on “Ocean Science Topics” in the navigation menu to • What type of fish did you research? the left, then navigate to (1) “Human • Where does it live? activities,” then “Environmental Issues,” • Who fishes it and how? then “Sustainability” or “Conservation”; (2) • Where are most of the consumers of “Human activities,” then “Seafood” or the fish live? “Fisheries”; (3) “Biology,” then • Why is it not a sustainable resource? “Vertebrates,” then “Fishes”; and (4) • How can people help increase the “Biology,” then to “General Marine Life.” population of the fish? (Should have the Seafood Watch website on the THE “ME” CONNECTION poster.) Have students write a letter to the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, a Seafood EXTENSIONS Watch partner, outlining what they Visit learned about sustainable seafood and http://www.oar.noaa.gov/k12/html/fisheri the actions they will take to help over- es2.html – Students can visit this site and fished
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