Fish Are Acting Drunk, Confused and Showing Up Dead All Over the World. What Gives?

Our fish friends are in deep shit.

If you think breathing the nasty crap in our air from pollution is bad, try swimming in it.

Rising carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions appear to be affecting sea fish in a big-ass way: Some species can't smell, hear or change directions in order to avoid predators the way they used to.

Marine Research

For several years, a team at James Cook University has been studying fish who live in waters with high levels of CO2. Their groundbreaking research has recently shown that key neurotransmitters in fishes’ brains are negatively altered in this kind of highly-acidic environment.

Drunk and Crazy

What's so bad about a few loose-cannon neurons? Scientists say the fish are acting flat-out drunk and crazy -- they can’t remember to avoid dangerous places or carry out the most basic survival patterns, like sticking together in a school. What’s worse? Baby fish seem to be the most vulnerable to these hazardous conditions.

Let’s do the math: dead babies = endangered species.

Blame the People

Where do humans come in? Rising CO2 levels are directly linked to industrial emissions, automobiles, deforestation and the combustion of fossil fuels - all that fun shit.

About 2.3 billion tons of human CO2 emissions are dissolved into the ocean every year. This crapload of pollution is drastically changing the chemical environment of the sea and threatening many species of marine life. While we may be a long way from shutting down factory farms and switching everyone to electric cars, we can make a difference to help our ocean creatures. Here are some ways you can reduce CO2 emissions and save our shiny, pretty fish friends:

1. Recycle. Recycling aluminum cans, glass bottles and newspapers can reduce your CO2 emissions by up to 850 pounds a year.

2. Unplug. If you ain’t using it, unplug it. Unplugging all your appliances that aren’t in use can reduce a typical household’s emissions by 10 percent.

3. Walk. Walk, carpool or use public transit. Seriously. There’s no excuse to be lazy about this anymore.

4. Don’t eat meat. Factory farming produces around 90 million tons of CO2 every year - another reason to ditch the meat if you haven't already.

5. Banish bottled water. Bottled water has a huge carbon footprint. Get a BPA-free Nalgene and call it a day, girl.

6. Use cold water. OK, maybe not in the shower, but your ass can wash dishes or do laundry without piping-hot H2O. Even swapping just one hot wash for a cold one helps.

7. Avoid plastic bags. You really don’t need to put produce (or any other stuff, for that matter) in a plastic bag when you go grocery shopping. Just bring a separate cloth bag for your fruits and veggies, and you could reduce your CO2 emissions by 5 percent a year.

What do you do to reduce your carbon footprint? Give us your ideas in the comments section below!

Mara Tyler, Managing Editor of HealthyBitchDaily.com

Mara Tyler is a health and wellness die-hard with a penchant for sarcasm. A former public relations and marketing professional, she's helped grow bleeding-heart health and fitness startups into successful companies with the wave of her magic wand. When she’s not berating her friends for eating Big Macs or preaching to her family about the wonders of green smoothies, she can be found reading bad chick lit, scouting out new indie bands or attempting to find bliss in yoga. Mara lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.


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