Impact on Nature
Community Impact Spotlight: Animals - Counting Calories
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
George Orwell, Animal Farm
“We are trashing our land to grow food that no one eats.”
Tristram Stuart, “The Global Food Waste Scandal” TED Talk
“Waste not, want not.”
Proverb
Introduction: Why Convert Dead Fish Into Calories?
Chemical spills at the Chem Dyne site resulted in 5 extensive fish kills in the Great Miami River. According to the EPA, fish kills refer to “when aquatic life within a river, lake, or stream dies in a mass extinction.” In total, the pollution at the Chem-Dyne Superfund site resulted in the death of more than one million fish and aquatic creatures (see page 9 of the linked document).
When researching environmental justice issues, I find it hard to fully grasp the effects of these events because they are often portrayed through large numbers that are hard to conceptualize (like a death toll of more than one million fish and aquatic animals). In the interest of trying to make the devastating effects of this injustice concrete, I will try to convert this number into a potentially more telling (albeit unconventional) statistic. And that statistic is calories, which is the main way that we conceptualize fish numerically.
This statistical calculation is not meant to imply that a fish’s intrinsic value is based on its caloric value. The truth is that fish are necessary links in the food chain and thus a vital part of the ecosystem. Humans are also links on the same chain and not some omnipresent god-species that can bend the environment to our will with no ramifications. We depend on fish to survive not only as a food source but also because wiping out entire fish species will have profound ripple effects across the food chain. Considering how small changes in the environment are amplified by positive feedback loops, it is hard to tell just how extensive the damage would be.
Quantifying Mass Death and Meaningless Waste
The Great Miami River is home to a diverse community of fish including blue catfish, brown trout, bullhead, channel catfish, common carp, crappie, flathead catfish, freshwater drum, hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, longnose gar, northern pike, rock bass, sauger, saugeye, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, sucker, sunfish, walleye, white bass, and yellow perch. This spread of biological diversity makes the Great Miami River a prime fishing location for many local residents.
For simplicity’s sake, say that all of the fish/aquatic animals that were killed as a result of the first Chem Dyne fish kill were all bass (this is not too much of a stretch considering that the Great Miami River is abundant in smallmouth bass). According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the average freshwater bass filet that weighs 79 grams and is cooked over dry heat contains 90.5 calories. One bass can make two filets; if we assume that every filet that comes from a bass weighs 79 grams, then each bass would produce 181 calories worth of food. Based on this statistic, if all of the fish killed during the first Chem Dyne fish kill were bass, approximately 181,000,000 potential calories were wasted. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a woman must eat 2000 calories per day to maintain her weight and a man must eat 2500 per day calories to maintain his weight. Thus, the calories wasted during the first fish kill could feed a woman for 90500 days (approximately 248 years) and feed a man for 72400 days (approximately 198 years).
These estimations are not completely accurate since there is a variety of species affected by the Chem Dyne site that have varying caloric values and these estimations are based on the death toll of only one fish kill event. However, it is safe to say that if the total amount of fish/aquatic life killed as a result of the pollution at the Chem Dyne site was converted to food, it could easily feed a person for their entire life (or even feed 100 people for an entire year).
Looking beyond a human-centric lens, the creatures killed because of Chem Dyne are living beings that did not ask to be exposed to toxic chemicals. Life in all its forms is inherently valuable because once it has been taken away it can never be given back. Who gave us the right as a species to senselessly take the lives of other creatures and fundamentally declare biological war on all of nature? There was not even a utilitarian purpose behind this loss of life like raising livestock for slaughter: it was solely the result of negligence and a lack of consideration of the effects of our actions on the environment. Essentially, it was waste for the sake of waste which beyond being bad economics is also a burden that we must all carry. Probably most if not all of the people who read this sentence played no part in the formation of the Chem Dyne superfund site; however, we are all participants in a culture that condones the creation of toxic sites like Chem Dyne. If we do not overtly and swiftly act in opposition to the formation of these sites then we all are complicit bystanders in what is arguably one of the greatest injustices of this generation.
Bibliography
“Aquatic Biodiversity Glossary: Fish Kill.” EPA, 2024.
https://sor.epa.gov/sor_internet/registry/termreg/searchandretrieve/glossariesandkeywordlists/search.do;jsessionid=ZIyhWb2FdUFMR_HKk-XXT_4U5HI2YAhaYN9pjeAkKYrpNp7LaL6j!772870057?details=&vocabName=Aquatic+Biodiversity+Glossary&filterTerm=fish+kill+&checkedAcronym=false&checkedTerm=false&hasDefinitions=false&filterMatchCriteria=Contains.
“Enforcement Decision Document - Remedial Alternative Selection for the Chem Dyne
Superfund Site.” EPA, July 1985. https://semspub.epa.gov/work/05/253060.pdf.
“Fooddata Central Search Results: Fish, Bass, Freshwater, Mixed Species, Cooked, Dry
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Rutledge, Mike. “Event Highlights Great Miami River Status as State’s Best Smallmouth
Bass Fishing Stream.” Dayton Daily News, June 3, 2020. https://www.daytondailynews.com/entertainment/event-highlights-great-miami-river-status-state-best-smallmouth-bass-fishing-stream/LoaYNVMR7iKvn3GFIiTT7O/.
“Stream Fishes of Ohio Field Guide.” WildOhio.gov. Accessed May 6, 2024.
https://camp-joy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Stream-Fish-Guide.pdf.
Stuart, Tristram. “The Global Food Waste Scandal.” Tristram Stuart: The global food waste
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