Fishing Down the Food Web

Shifting Baselines and Fishing Down the Food Web

• This series of photographs illustrates the concept of shifting baselines, and serves as an example of fishing down the food web, a concept highlighted in the Robert's textbook.

• The primary idea is that humans initially target the largest fish species.

• As the populations of these large fish decline or are depleted, fishing efforts shift to the next largest available species.

• This pattern continues, with humans progressively targeting smaller and smaller species as larger ones become scarce, hence "fishing down" the food web.