How Phytoplankton Endangers Fish Farms – and the Best Way to Combat the Threat
Author: Jennie Korus
Did you know that 99 percent of all biomass in the ocean is invisible to the human eye? To help put that in perspective, a teaspoon of seawater can hold over a million different living organisms – all tiny, often single-celled.
Among them are phytoplankton – essentially the ocean’s microscopic plants and the foundation of the largest food chains on the planet.
While too tiny to be seen, phytoplankton can be spotted in the ocean with the help of fluorescent sensors, which can locate high concentrations of phytoplankton – known as an algal bloom – and identify different species based solely on the pigments they contain.
Why is this important to fish farming? Because phytoplankton can pack a serious punch.