Sometimes the smallest of things can have the greatest of impacts. We’ve all woken up to find we’ve no milk in the fridge and got to wondering how we ever did without it! Well, as strange as it may sound the Pacific Herring is a little like that. Commonly referred to as “the silver of the sea”, these oily little fish have proved to be the most commercially important part of the fishing industry. Being a staple part of the human diet since at least 3000 B.C. Although, it’s not just humans who have developed a taste for these delicate bait bits. With a list of predators as long as your arm, it’s not surprising that they have developed a way of breeding which ensures their survival. Ecological biomass is a term used to describe how living biological organisms group together to defend their species against the many predators they face, there is after all power in numbers! This isn’t an uncommon technique, and we see similarities in the breeding habits of many animals, particularly those who live in herds.

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Small but mighty, new from BBC Earth

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