Why do even the largest fish produce such tiny, vulnerable eggs?
The probability of being consumed at the earliest life stages is so high that, only by dint of their sheer numbers, do a tiny fraction of the offspring of fish avoid this fate and survive to maturity. Life as a tiny planktonic fish egg or larvae is usually quite short, the risk of predation mortality at this stage being far higher than that faced by juveniles that have reached larger sizes and escaped from the perilous life in the plankton. Fish have evolved to cope with this awesome risk faced by their young by producing them in huge quantitiesor at least that is our usual interpretation of the reason why so many extra eggs are formed. A minority of fish have evolved with reproductive strategies that avoid the extreme hazards of early planktonic existence as juveniles (mainly sharks and their relatives). This is accomplished by a greater investment being made into each of a few offspring. The dominant type of fish in the sea however, the bony fishes or teleosts overwhelmingly have opt
