Plankton浮游生物

Scattered through the seas of the world are billions of tons of small

plants and animals called plankton. Most of these plants and animals are

too small for the human eye to see. They drift about lazily with the

currents, providing a basic food for many larger animals.

Plankton has been described as the equivalent of the grasses that grow

on the dry land continents, and the comparison is an appropriate one. In

potential food value, however, plankton far outweighs that of the land

grasses. One scientist has estimated that while grasses of the world

produce about 49 billion tons of valuable carbohydrates each year, the

sea’s plankton generates more than twice as much.

Despite its enormous food potential, little effect was made until

recently to farm plankton as we farm grasses on land. Now marine

scientists have at last begun to study this possibility, especially as

the sea’s resources loom even more important as a means of feeding an

expanding world population.

No one yet has seriously suggested that “ plankton-burgers” may soon

become popular around the world. As a possible farmed supplementary food

source, however, plankton is gaining considerable interest among marine

scientists.

One type of plankton that seems to have great harvest possibilities is a

tiny shrimp-like creature called krill. Growing to two or three inches

long, krill provides the major food for the great blue whale, the

largest animal to ever inhabit the Earth. Realizing that this whale may

grow to 100 feet and weigh 150 tons at maturity, it is not surprising

that each one devours more than one ton of krill daily.