Name:______
Fishing for Goldfish
Background Information: Carrying capacity is the total number of organisms of a particular species that can be supported by a habitat based on the available biotic and abiotic factors of an ecosystem.
Procedure:
1. The bowl represents the ocean and the goldfish crackers represent real fish.
2. Harvest as many fish as possible from the ocean. You may choose to harvest all, some or none of the fish during each turn.
3. Carrying capacity for the ocean is 16 fish. After each fishing trip, record the number of fish your group caught.
4. After each fishing trip, one fish will be placed in the ocean for each fish that remains in the ocean. Record the population of the fish in the ocean after the end of one year.
Data Table:
Year / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5Number of Fish Caught
Population After Fishing
Population After Reproducing
Conclusion:
1. Why did your teacher replace some fish in the bowl after every fishing trip?
2. What happened if a group fished too many fish out of the ocean on one turn?
3. What is carrying capacity? What was the carrying capacity in this lab?