Cutting the food chain? The controversial plan to turn zooplankton into fish oil

A budding industry that aims to catch zooplankton for health supplements and fish food has scientists fearing that its effects on marine ecosystems could be devastatingo 'It's mind-boggling': the hidden cost of our obsession with fish oil pillsA few times a day, off the Faroe Islands' coast, the crew of the Jákup Sverri marine survey ship test the water, measuring its salinity, temperature and oxygen at different sea depths. But they also look for something else.Durita S?rensen, a laboratory technician, holds up the contents of a special net to demonstrate. If the water is greenish, it contains a lot of phytoplankton, the plants at the base of the oceanic food chain. But if it is red or brown, as in S?rensen's net, the haul is one rung higher up the ladder: zooplankton. "This is calanus, or Calanus finmarchicus," she says, indicating the tiny red creatures. "This is what they are interested in making fish oil [from] as a food supplement for humans." Continue reading...