"The Ever Changing Tide:
The Ecological Dynamics of the Earth's Oceans as Exemplified through the
Biodiversity of the Flushing New York Seafood Markets"
A Project by Brandon Ballengée 2000-2001
Courtesy the Artist and Archibald Arts
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| The project involves the collection, identification, and documentation of numerous species of aquatic organisms available for consumption at various Flushing seafood markets. In December of last year, I began to search the area for various species with the intention of collecting each kind available. Each week the specimens are documented and preserved. The Flushing markets each day sell thousands of pounds of fish, mollusks, and other marine animals from all over the world. As an artist interested in sustainable ecosystems, these markets are amazingly and sometimes frightfully rich. |
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| Fishing is an ancient human tradition. Seafood is an important source of protein for hundreds of millions of people. Over the past century, over-fishing, global climate change and the introduction of competitive non-native species has caused decreased biodiversity. As global trade has increased the international market for seafood has excelled. Each year millions of tons of aquatic fauna are harvested for food. In 1950, the annual catch was around 18 million tons. By 1986 the marine fisheries production level peaked at 86 million tons. Today, catches are falling despite the fact that expanding fleets are fishing more extensively. Companies are spending more time, effort and money than ever before in trying to maintain their quotas. Without allowing aquatic species the necessary time to replenish themselves many important economically and biologically important populations may soon vanish. |
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| The earth's waters and its inhabitants are constantly being manipulated. In 1992, artist Mark Dion in his work "The Report of the Department of Marine Animal Inventory of the City of New York China Town Division" surveyed the China Town markets photographing and identifying various species of fish. Almost a decade later, many of the species Dion collected have suffered from population declines and some have even become commercially extinct. Greenpeace estimates that many decades of overfishing have put numerous species in severe decline. Even conservative scientific institutions agree the dynamic change in ocean ecology deserves attention. |
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| A special thank you to the following individuals for their help with this project: Todd Gardiner, The Marine Biology Department of Hofstra University for helping to identify species. Mercedes Lee, The National Audubon Society's Living Ocean Program for helping to edit text about various species. Peter Warny, Associate Researcher, The New York State Museum for helping to preserve and identify species. Martin Karon for photographic assistance. Moon J. Lee, Monika Kumar, Roberto Medina, Hsu-Han Shang, Pedro Silva and Gloria Schoenthal for their assistance with translating various texts. All images are unique iris or digital prints. Iris printing courtesy of The Institute for Electronic Arts, Alfred University. Following the exhibition at the Queens Museum of Art, the specimens will permanently enter the Ichthyology collections of the American Museum of Natural History, The New York State Museum, and The Peabody Museum at Yale University. |
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To learn more about seafood conservation, please check out the following links! Living
Oceans is the marine conservation program at National Audubon Society. Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation The Marine Fish Conservation Network The National Coalition for Marine Conservation World Wildlife Fund's Endangered Seas Campaign Natural Resources Defense Council/Wildlife and Fish page |