Did the fish die when God flooded the earth?

Answer 1

Many died in the Flood - there are vast amounts of fish that were fossilized as a result of the sudden deluge and resulting upheaval and changed conditions. However, not all did - obviously we still have fish today. There might have been many areas over the earth where the water content was not changed so dramatically as in other places, hence allowing enough to survive to ensure continuation of their kind.

Answer 2

Since The Bible does not address this question, the only way to answer it is the way a scientist would if he or she believed that the story of Noah's Ark really happened.

According to the Book of Genesis, the whole world, land and sea, was covered by several kilometres of water. Without canvassing where all this water came from, this has several serious consequences for the survival of fish.

First of all, it seems as if salt-water and fresh water must have mixed in somewhat equal proportions. The ocean waters would have been diluted with so much fresh water that salt-water fish would have died. The fresh water would have been poisoned by so much salt water that fresh-water fish would have died.

Fish have to eat, just like land animals. There are bottom-feeders in relatively shallow waters; there are fish that rely on sea-weed, again in shallow waters; there are fish that find their nutrients in the run-off from rivers: these would have all been exterminated. Sharks and carnivorous fish that feed off other surface fish would die of starvation, as there would be no prey.

In all, the waters of the world should have become a barren desert with no fish.

Answer 3

A:If there really was a great Flood that covered the whole world to the top of the mountains for an entire year, as in Genesis chapter 8, I would expect all the fish in the world to die. The following are some sound reasons:

• The huge volume of fresh water would dilute the sea water so that it was no longer sufficiently saline for salt water fish to live.
• The sea water would also have mixed with the world's fresh water, probably making it too saline for fresh water fish to live.
• Fish that feed along the shoreline and in mangroves would die of hunger, as there would no longer have been shorelines and mangroves.
• All seaweed would die, so a major source of food at the start of the foodchain would cease to exist.
• Bottom feeding fish would die because their habitat would be kilometres underwater and inaccessible. In any case, the total lack of light at these great depths would mean there would be no food for them.
• There would be no breeding grounds in rivers, estuaries, bays or along the shores, because these features ceased to exist. Apart from the many other difficulties, there would be no new generation of fish.

Answer 4

The Bible does not say. However, other problems would have been just as serious. For whatever reason, few if any fish species could have survived.

The Flood would have affected the salinity of the water, so that it was neither suitable for fresh-water fish, which would probably have died and become extinct from the increased salinity as the ocean waters mixed with the waters above the land, nor the sea fish, which would probably have died and become extinct from the reduced salinity as the ocean waters were diluted. Other issues would have been starvation and the lack of shallow waters in which to hide from predators and in which to breed.

It is hard to imagine any fish surviving long enough to breed and re-establish the species.