Plenty-o Fish Description: Students will have a chance to venture into the world of fishing. Some students will get to run small commercial fishing operations while others will have a chance to fisheries biologists. The activity is designed to demonstrate the pressures on our world s fisheries as well as encourage students to think of solutions for sustainable fishing. Learning Objectives: The students will manage a commercial fishing stock. Students will learn about fish reproduction and population dynamics. Students will discuss sustainable fishing practices. Students will learn about threats facing the world s fisheries. Students will learn what they can do to help the world s fish populations. Grade Level: All Ages Science Topics: fisheries management, population ecology, small group work, economics, growth and reproduction Time: 1. pre-program 30 minutes 2. program 1.5 hours Supplies: Plenty-o fish cut-outs (3 sizes of blue and pink fish) 12 Fishing Employees Expense Worksheet Dry erase markers (skinny) 3 Fishery Biologist Instructions 5 Population Graphs 2 Instructor Cards 2 Starting Boat Procedures Large Whiteboard Fate Cards Masking Tape Scratch Paper Pencils Background Information Fishing has been a vital industry for many coastal communities for over one hundred years. In recent decades the stress of over fishing has caused many of the world wide fisheries to collapse. This collapse has caused many economic challenges in small fishing communities. During this program students will have a chance to simulate a small fishing community with fisheries biologists and small family owned fishing companies. Students will have the opportunity to manage or not manage the Plenty-o Fish population. Ideally the students will have a chance to experience the economic pressures of trying to provide a living for their families as well as maintain a
Plenty-o Fish viable fish population that will allow for sustainable fishing for generations. As the evening progresses you will watch the story unfold...will the fishermen be lured by the prospects of high profits? How long will the fish last? Will the wildlife biologist be able to convince the fisherman to take a long term view of the fisheries management? Will the fishermen work together or will their be fierce competition?? Spending an evening in Plenty -o Cove will always prove to be a valuable and interesting experience. Advanced Preparation This activity takes about 30 minutes of advance preparation to run smoothly. Before the evening program take time to set up plenty-o fish cove. 1. Design the whiteboard so the students have a clear goals for the evening. Goals for fishing companies: 1. Catch enough fish to support your family and employees (i.e stay in business). 2. Manage your resources. 3. Be safe and have fun. Be sure to include space for the students to record their company name and profits each round. 2. Place a rope or masking tape to indicate the shoreline of plenty-o cove (all fishing companies will be located behind this line). 3. Determine how many fishing companies are needed. There should be no more than 5 students per company for best student engagement. 4. Once the number of groups has been determined set out a chair for a chaperone behind the line. The chaperone will be the team leader to help with the logistics and math between each season. 5. Determine the number of fish needed for the cove. See Chart for recommended starting populations. Randomly place appropriate number of fish opposite the starting line. 6. Compile the following items for the teams. Fisheries Biologists: Biologist role card, graph for fish reproduction card, spare paper and a pencil. Fishing Companies: Expense Report Card, Fish Value Card, Starting Boat Rules Card, Scratch Paper and Pencil. Introduction To maximize the playing time keep the introduction as short as possible (i.e. no more than 10 minutes). You are about to embark on a journey into the realm of fisheries, biology, economics and conservation. Some of you will become the employees for fishing companies in the bay where you live. You will spend your time fishing for Plenty-o fish, a local species of high commercial value, an thinking about financial issues. Others will become biologists who will monitor the taking and reproduction of the Plenty-o fish species. As fishing folk tonight you have three goals... 1. Catch enough fish to support your family and employees (i.e. stay in business). 2. Manage your resources. 3. Be safe and have fun. Number the students off to divide students into desired number of fishing groups. Pull aside 2-4 students to be fisheries biologists.
Tell all the students the rules of fishing. 1. The teams of fishing companies will line up single file on the dock in front of an open playing field (the ocean) scattered with pink and blue colored sheets representing plenty-o fish population. The first people in line will run out, grab a fish and come back to the dock, tagging in the next person in line. This will continue for one season. When the season is over I will say Fishing season over! 2. Right now each company has only one boat with limited storage space and basic fishing technology. Because of this, only one person may fish at a time. Each person may only bring one fish back at a time. Once someone comes back with a Plenty-o catch (one paper fish), another may go. 3. The large fish are worth $75, the medium fish are worth $50 and the small fish are worth $25. 4. Once fishing season ends, any catch not yet on the dock must be let go. 5. Each boat must fill out the chart which records their catch in dollar amounts at the end of every season. Any expenses for the season will be subtracted from the subtotal to get the net income for the year. Later that income can be used to invest in more boats and better technology. Once the rules are explained, have each team come up with a fishing company name. Have the students write their names on the whiteboard. While the fishing companies are coming up with their names pull the fisheries biologists aside and inform them of Plenty-o Fish their role. 1. They are in charge of the fish reproduction. As long as there is at least 1 large male left at the end of the round, each large female will reproduce 2 baby female fish and 2 baby male fish. 2. Besides reproduction, the biologists will redistribute the fish for the next round...collect all of the fish remaining and count how many are left. Then the small fish become medium fish, the medium fish become large fish, the large fish remain in the game and the babies are added. Distribute the fish in the cove and be sure to record the new totals. 3. Create population graph. 4. Come up with policy or fishing recommendations. When everyone is ready introduce the fishing companies and begin the game. Activity Let the fishing begin! Season one. Send the fishermen out. The length of the seasons will be based on this round. Typically it seems that the seasons last between 1-1.5 minutes. End the season before all of the fish are depleted so that there are at least some left for the next round. Be sure that you run the rest of the seasons for the same amount of time whether or not there are fish left. At the end of the round have the students regroup. They should calculate their profits. Once the profits have been calculated have the groups subtract the costs of the season. Every season each company must pay $350 for fuel and maintenance costs per boat in operation. Each team must
report their final profits to the instructor who will record them next to the team name. Meanwhile have the biologists begin their counting and tallying of the populations. This is a time consuming process. Be prepared to spend a lot of time the first round helping the biologists with the process. When the reproduction and profit calculations have been taken care of be sure to announce how much profit each team earned. Allow the biologists some time to make recommendations if they want to. Ask the fishing companies if they have any comments or concerns that they would like to bring up to the group before the next season. Finally allow the fishing companies to expand their operation. They may purchase some new equipment. The companies may purchase extra lines for $100 a line. The extra line is only good for the season they purchased it. An extra line allows one student to bring in 2 fish instead of one. The line is only effective for one person on the team. If multiple people want to bring in multiple fish they must buy multiple lines. For example a team of 4 students could buy five extra lines which means that 3 students would get to bring in 2 fish each time they went out and 1 student would be able to bring in 3 fish. The total cost for that round would be an additional $500. Teams may not go into the whole to buy new equipment. Teams may also buy an extra boat. There is a one time fee of $800 dollars. Each year they must also pay the cost of the fuel and maintenance for each boat. Buying another boat Plenty-o Fish allows two students to go out at the same time. Unless the team buys extra lines the each student may only bring back one fish. Be sure to adjust the total profits to reflect purchases on the whiteboard. Begin season 2-?! Each progressive season runs the same way. If there is time you can introduce the fate cards. Fate cards are used at the beginning of the round and are in effect for the whole round. Special Situations: Extinction! The plenty-o fish are fished to extinction. This will likely happen in the first 3 rounds of the game no matter what the biologists say or even if the chaperones try to intervene. If this occurs early on you will have time to debrief what happened and reset the game and see if the students can modify their fishing strategies. Be sure to spend some time talking about what happened. Have the students calculate their total profits. Did they survive that season. What would happen if the next year, the year after that? (In real life the populations are deep underwater we can t see them being depleted as easily as we can in this game.) Why did it happen? How did the companies feel? What pressures did they feel they were under? Were they motivated to change as they watched the population get smaller? Would they do things differently if they had a chance? How? What options do they have now? How might the cove ecosystem be impacted? Do you think that their would be an ecological impact to the extinction? The plenty-o fish might be important predators or
prey in the cove. Without them the ecosystem could change dramatically. Their prey population could over populate the area (similar to the sea urchins overpopulating when the otters were removed) or a crash of the predator species when its food source is removed. Does this situation have any correlation to real life? Is there anything that happens in real life that we could do to fix our over population problem (i.e. regulations)? Once you have debriefed the extinction process you can restart the game. Be sure to have the fishing companies and the biologists work to come up with a plan for their 2nd chance. Wrap-up Be sure to leave 5-10 minutes at the end of the game to discuss how the evening went. What did the students learn? How does this relate to real life? World wide our fisheries are collapsing. We have limited knowledge on exact fish populations and even the reproductive and habitat requirements of some fish. When we cause one population to crash we move on to the next accessible population. Today we are fishing what in the past was considered junk fish either fish that are too small or not as tasty as what we used to get in the past. Fishing communities feel pressure to compete with companies of all sizes and can ignore the warning signs of a collapsing population if they need to support families and a community. Many small fishing communities on our coast reflect this in their depressed economic states and lack of jobs in the community. What are the advantages and Plenty-o Fish disadvantages of getting more lines or an extra boat? Advantages: You can bring in more fish so you have a higher profit. You can better compete with other fishing companies so that you stay in business. Disadvantages: More efficient fishing technologies may put extra stress on the fish populations that we cannot predict. What does it mean to manage a natural resource? Natural resource management is the scientific and technical understanding of water, soil, plants or animals. We use this information for human consumption. The way we manage a resource determines how it survives in the future. How can we as responsible citizens make a difference today? We can make a difference. Education is something that everyone can do. There are organizations like Monterey Bay Aquarium that put out a seafood guide. This guide recommends what fish are good to buy and eat based on the way that they are harvested and what chemicals they have in their body. We have some here if you would like to take one home. If you put your money towards fish that is caught sustainably it will pressure the fishing industry to make changes to their fishing practices to get our money. Is it possible to fish sustainably? Yes. Some fisheries are sustainable currently for example the Alaskan wild salmon fishery and the wild caught Dungeness crab industry. However, much research needs to be done to make the current fishing industry sustainable. If there was an extinction, were the students able to maintain the fish population the second time around?
Did they feel the same pressures as the first attempt? Were they able to support their families and companies even if they did not overfish? Was it hard to fish within limits? How would they feel if not everyone followed the rules the second time around? Extentions Have the students come up with an action plan for promoting sustainable fishing back at their school. Make sure that they are encouraged to present both sides of the issue so that they are conveying the whole issue. rather than just one side. Investigate traditional cultures fishing methods and modern commercial fishing methods. Have the students compare and contrast the impact of traditional methods with modern methods. Go fishing :) Sources This game was created by Heather Richards an instructor from Headlands Institute a Campus of NatureBridge. State Standards 4-5 SYSD One defective part can cause a subsystem to malfunction, which in turn will affect the system as a whole. Plenty-o Fish 4-5 APPA Technology involves changing the natural world to meet human needs. 4-5 APPH People of all ages, interests and abilities engage in a variety of scientific and technological work. 4-5 LS2E All plants and animals change the ecosystem where they live. If this change reduces another organism s access to resources, that organism may move or die. 4-5 LS2F People affect ecosystems both positively and negatively. 6-8 SYSF The natural and designed world is complex; it is too large and complicated to investigate and comprehend all at once. Scientists and students learn to define small portions for the convenience of investigation. The units of investigation can be referred to as systems. 6-8 LS2E Investigations of environmental issues should uncover factors causing the problem and relevant scientific concepts and findings that may inform an analysis of different ways to address the issue. 9-12 APPC Choosing the best solution involves comparing alternatives with respect to criteria and constraints, then building an d testing a model or other representation of the final design. 9-12 APPF It is important for all citizens to apply science and technology to critical issues that influence society. 9-12 LS2F The concept of sustainable development supports adoption of policies that enable people to obtain the resources they need today without limiting the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable processes include substituting renewable for nonrenewable resources, recycling, and using fewer resources. Appendix The following pages are the handout sheets for the game.
Pre-program Set-up Set-up for 35 people or less Plenty-o Fish Educator Cheat Sheet Classroom Table for Biologist Introduce game on this side of room Starting Line Whiteboard for introduction Scoreboard/ Purchases Record Computers Fish Companies: 1 chair per company for adult Doors Fish Set up for 35 people or more Fishing Companies: 1 Chair per adult put in place after intro Classroom Table for Biologists Whiteboard for Introduction Scoreboard/ Purchase Record Fishing Companies: 1 chair/adult Computers Fish Cove 1 Doors Cove 2 Up to 35 people Up to 45 people More than 60 people Big Male 10 15 20 Big Female 10 15 20 Table with starting fish numbers Medium Male 15 20 25 Medium Female 15 20 25 Small Male 20 25 30 Small Female 20 25 30 Total Fish 90 120 150
Introduction Journey into fisheries biology, economics, and conservation. Three goals of the evening as fishing companies: 1. Catch enough fish to support for family and employees. 2. Manage your resources. 3. Be safe and have fun. Fish Basics One species of fish the plenty-o fish Blue are males and pink are females The three sizes = three age groups. Must be one big male at end of round to reproduce with big females. Each company chooses a company name and shares with group and recorded on score/tally board. Age $ amount Big Fish 2 year old fish can reproduce $75 Medium Fish 1 year old fish can not reproduce $50 Small Fish <1 year old fish cannot reproduce $25 Game Play Each round lasts no more than 1 minute and 20 seconds. You can shorten at your discretion. 1st round each company can only send out one person at a time. That person can only bring back 1 fish. At the end of each round tally total earnings and subtract expenses for next season start amount. F1st season start amount is $0 Expenses = fuel cost for each season $350, buying additional boats $1000 plus double gas or lines $100/line (lines are only good for one season), penalties exacted for not following laws. Reproduction: at the end of a season small fish become medium fish, medium fish become large fish and any large female left will have 2 small males and 2 small females (as long as 1 large male is left in the cove). Before start of following seasons allow each company to buy extra lines or boats. Tally these purchases by the teams profits. Extra boats = 2 people can go out at a time Extra lines = lasts one season. # of extra lines = # of people who can bring back 2 fish at a time. Extinctions! Expect them they are normal even multiple extinctions. Great way to talk about humans and stewardship. Wrap-up What caused extinctions? How can we prevent them? What did you learn? How does this relate to real life? What does it mean to manage a natural resource? How can we as responsible citizens make a difference today?
Season 1 2 3 4 5 Bank $$ Big Male Big Female Catch Amount in $ Mid Male Mid Female Small Male Small Female Sub- Total Season Expenses (-$) Net Income
Gas prices increase to double. Seal population increase means fewer fish for the fishing boats. Harmful algal blooms affect fish population. Cut reproduction in half. Upwelling along the shore brings fish populations closer to land and makes fishing more accessible. Place fish close to docks and lower gas expense. New fishing boat comes to town and competes for fish (marine biologists go out and fish for a season. No one keeps the money.) Hardworking employees on the boat means more fish. Increase season by 1 minute. Stormy weather means less fishing trips. Shorten season by one minute. Market value of fish increases. Add $500 to your bank account. An accident onboard temporarily impairs all but one employee per boat. Have only one person fish for two minutes of season.
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