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Declining fish stocks could be partly responsible for algal blooms in the oceans, researchers have found.
Scientists found that the fall in cod stocks in the Baltic Sea in recent decades increased numbers of the tiny marine plants that produce the blooms.
Algal blooms - sometimes known as "toxic tides" - can be poisonous to people, fish and other wildlife, and may be on the increase worldwide. --- Basically, zooplankton (tiny marine animals) eat phytoplankton, and sprat (small fish) eat zooplankton. Finally, cod eat the sprat. (...) The data showed a simple correlation. As the cod population declined sharply from the early 1980s, the sprat population rose; zooplankton declined, and phytoplankton increased.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7386458.stmOops.
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