The Fish Game by The Cloud Institute for Sustainability

This online game is designed to teach sustainability by demonstrating the problems overfishing can cause. Players fish for 10 days, earning money for each fish, along with other people doing the same. They learn the rate that the lake restocks the fish population over the 10-day period and how to balance that with their own needs as well as having to consider what impact others are having on the fish population.

You have 10 days to catch as many fish as you can. The money you make from these fish will need to support your family for the next month. Each fish nets $2.

Each day, you’ll choose whether you want to take none, one, two, or three fish for the day. There are two other fisher folk also trying to catch as many fish as they can – they will follow your lead, and base their catch on yours.

The lake in which you are fishing can only support 20 fish (that is the carrying capacity of the lake). Every night, the fish that remain after a day of fishing will reproduce at a rate of 25% (for the purpose of this game, we round to the nearest whole number). However, the total number of fish can’t exceed 20. For instance, if there are 12 fish, they will multiply to 15 overnight. If there are 19, they will multiply to 20.

Ready to play? Remember: the object of the game is to have as many fish as possible at the end of the game.