Marine Food Webs are Complex
This explains why fisheries science is so impreciseBelow is a diagram of a simplified food web of the Northwest Atlantic. This image is so complex that one can barely make out the connections….and it’s a simplification of reality. This food web was created by zoologist Dr. David Lavigne of Canada (former Zoology professor at the University of Guelph and science advisor to the International Fund for Animal Welfare). He authored over 100 scientific articles, reports, and books on marine mammals, fisheries, conservation, and ecology.
Below is an animated illustration of a very simplified food web of the northeastern Pacific ocean. This shows that seals and sea lions (pinnipeds) are both predators and prey of other species in the oceans and that prey of pinnipeds are predators of other species that are valued by many humans. Eliminating or drastically reducing their numbers affects both the predators of pinnipeds and the prey of the pinnipeds’ prey. Animation created by Harpseals.org.
