Catching Big Mama Fish Curbs Ocean Fertility By Marah J. Hardt
Notes: -Affectionately known as BOFFFFs—big, old, fat, fecund, female fish—these individuals contribute far more to future generations than other members of the population. -Science reveals that going after the biggest fish in the sea—when those are the females—is kind of like killing the goose that lays the golden egg. Not a smart move if you want to keep seeing your favorite seafood on the menu. -Bigger females make more eggs—and thus make more babies—than smaller fish. A lot more. -Larger and older females can physically hold more eggs. Having done most of their growing, they can also put more energy into making eggs " In Hawai‘i, for example, a bluefin trevally 27 inches-long can produce 84 times as many eggs as a fish half her length. This pattern holds across many species, including cod, herring and rockfish." -, BOFFFFs produce higher numbers of batches over extended spawning seasons than smaller/younger females. -BOFFFFs are especially good at making more fish. Trouble is, they are also our favorite fish to catch. -The loss of BOFFFFs is bad news for next year’s spawning cycle, but such size selective fishing has far graver consequences.
Summary: BOFFFFs as known as big, old, fat, fecund, female fish contribute to the future generations more then the other species of the population,. The reason is the larger and older the female fish the more eggs they can hold. The bad part of this is the BOFFFFS are targeted by us humans because 'the bigger the fish the bigger the braggin' rights" thus they're our favorite fishes to catch. The loss of these fishes can be very bad for the next spawning cycle. The smaller fishes can not have as much babies as the bigger fishes but we are fishing them out.
Opinion: I have never known this was a problem until I read this article. I learned about the importance of bigger fishes such as the BOFFFFs also known as big, old, fat, fecund, female fishes, They contribute a lot to the sea and yet we are fishing them out because they're are so big and less fishes are reproducing because we have taken the biggest females for human's personally enjoyment and food. I think we should have stricter rules implying to fishing because if we do not do anything this bigger fishes will cease to exist.