I few days ago I was watching Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea on youtube. At one point in the movie Captain Nemo (played by James Mason) says that all the food on the Nautilus comes from the sea. Could this be done? Could you get all your vitamins, minerals and etc. using only foods harvested from the world’s oceans?
It seems it is possible but there would be challenges. You’d probably not want to do that unless you had no other choice.
ANSWER: Perhaps surprisingly, I don’t think the movie was unrealistic in its portrayal. Raw fish has a very wide range of nutrients, and supplementation with at least one plant, coconuts, would help with other micronutrients, including vitamins. There is enough vitamin C in raw (but not cooked) fish to prevent deficiency. It’s not an ideal diet for most people, but people can certainly survive on it.
You may have noticed that Tom Hanks’ character became extremely lean, which is what would be expected to happen with such a diet.
Between fish, invertebrates, sea weed/algaes, and marine mammals, I don’t see why not.
Someone on a desert island would struggle to get all those things, but Captain Nemo should be fine.
Yeah…the seaweed will be important. Otherwise you will get no dietary fiber. I am not sure what happens to someone who gets no dietary fiber in their diet but I’d think that would be a problem.
Dolphins and whales get all their needed nutrients from the sea and I don’t imagine human anatomy can be all that different.
Surely throughout many thousands of years of human history, there has been a society which depended on the sea. Perhaps eating fish, seaweed, crustaceans and Chicken-of-the-Sea.
I think it is possible. There ia a wide variety of sea-based food already commercially available. The bugaboo is plants and carbs, but I would think there are enough seaweed products available to cover that. However, beyond seaweed, what other sea-plant products are there? As for how healthy it would be, I suspect a diet heavy in sea-animal protien and seaweed products, and light on everything else may not be great for human health. Counter-example: Inuit communities - not sure how much of their traditional diet is non-sea based, but they made a living mainly on sea life.
Two questions, first the one you specifically asked - could we get everything via foods harvested from the worlds oceans? Well sure, because among other things, we aren’t hunter-gatherers. If we were living in the sea, we’d be aquafarming for protein, micro and macronutrients, and the whole nine yards. We aren’t limited to the technology of a castaway on a deserted island.
I’d expect a lot of processed phytoplankton as the soylent green (not that, the original soy-lentil) as a foodsource:
The other implied question, is if Nemo and his crew were doing so. And … I think there are multiple answers, but probably no. I mean, I’m sure they got a LOT of their food, and especially protein from the ocean, since it was all right there for them, and Nemo seemed to enjoy putting his crew at risk to go get it in a dramatic manner, but he isn’t the most practical of men.
Plus, the implications are he’s only been doing it for a relatively short while, in the time our POV character is aboard, the deaths among the crew and Nemo’s instability grow dramatically. IIRC, it’s less than a year that they’re aboard, and it’s all turned pear-shaped by the end. For that matter, if you accept the sequel as correct, they have a home base on an island, where they would easily have been able to restock on freshies for health and variety.
For that matter, Nemo isn’t exactly the most reliable narrator, as he’s increasingly insane due to trauma, both personal and political, and absolutely trying to put his best foot forwards with a known marine biologist whom he expects to share his passions with.
Vitamin C would be a challenge.
The vitamin C content was compared to other food sources, and this showed that seaweeds can contribute to the daily vitamin C intake, but are not a rich source.
According to the paper, you would need to consume roughly a pound of seaweed each day, every day to get your RDI of Vitamin C.
Yes, but if we were converting into a sea-derived society, I’m sure we’d be working on an aquatic version of golden rice and the equivalents. GMO (which is not a bad word to me to be clear) would certainly be a more effective fix than mass farming of marine mammals or other creatures for organ meat to stave off scurvy.
This is starting to sound like a reboot of Seaquest DSV though.
My link above suggests that there is enough vitmain-C in raw fish to prevent scurvy.
I am not sure how much faith you can put in that. While mammals, they have evolved to live in their environments. Koalas are mammals and they live by eating eucalyptus leaves which are poisonous to humans.
Native peoples include sea mammals in their diet — seals, small whales, that sort of thing. When we hear “food that comes from the sea,” we think “fish,” and while mammals have been mentioned, the thread seems to emphasize fish, crustaceans, etc. Nevertheless, “food from the sea” also includes warm-blooded air-breathers, and the raw meat of those critters, especially organ meat, has a pretty high nutritional value, including vitamin C.
I know a guy who lived on raw meat for a year to prove there was enough vitamin C in it to prevent scurvy. Yes, he had a lot of crazy theories about diet. But he didn’t get scurvy. And we don’t actually need to consume carbohydrates.
I find it hard to imagine you can’t get all the nutrients you need from “things you can harvest from the sea.”
Ish. Reminds me of an old joke: “Eskimos eat whale meat and blubber, but then you’d blubber too if you had nothing but whale meat to eat.”
Saeweed is not one single thing, it is all the species of macroscopic algae in the world, which are as diverse as trees, shrubs and grasses on dry land. You must only look for the right species for your needs, and if you don’t find it there is still the whole realm of phytoplankton.
I did a bit of research and found the Inuit (formerly called Eskimos) have a food
called “Muktuk” consisting of whale skin and blubber that is a good source of
vitamins C and D. More info here: Muktuk - Wikipedia.
It looks like Capt. Nemo and his crew could live on foods that are only from the
ocean but they would have to sail the seven seas to collect all the foods that
would give them proper nutrition.
Yes you could live only on food that comes from the sea, plenty of cultures are evidence of that.
Would you be as healthy or live as long as someone with a more balanced diet? probably not but compared to the standard western diet replete with junk food, you’d do well.
While plenty of human cultures live “mostly” from harvesting things from the sea, it’s not exclusive, as they also include some land-based foods. The Polynesians come to mind, but they had fruits of various trees, and roots, for one example. Tom Hanks and Castaway are mentioned upthread, but as I recall he ate coconuts along with his seafood diet. I don’t know of any human settlement that was exclusivly supported by sea life.
Yeah, I include sea mammals as sea food.
They’d need to go at least 20,000 leagues.