“Go Fish!”

Thursday, July 23, 2015

My husband and I are currently setting up a saltwater fish tank.  In doing so, it made me think about Noah's Ark and the flood. At that time, the entire surface of the earth was covered with water.  We know that freshwater fish cannot live in saltwater, and saltwater fish cannot live in fresh water; yet at this time, God in His wisdom was able to have all fish survive inside His giant aquarium.  The beauty of God never ceases to amaze me.  Do you have any thoughts on this?

Sincerely, Fish Friend

Dear Fish Friend,

Your question is more of a scientific one than a Biblical one… but it certainly has pertinence. The Bible says that God flooded the whole earth (Gen 6:17) and that Noah only saved the land-based animals on the ship (Gen 6:19-20). The fish, saltwater and freshwater, would have been left to fend for themselves. There is an excellent technical article on this subject here at AnswersInGenesis.

The short version is that most fish didn’t survive the cataclysmic disasters of the flood. Just like the land-based animals, most of the aquatic life would have been destroyed under all the upheaval (hence all the fossils we have today). However, some did survive, probably in ‘pockets’ of freshwater in various areas of the globe. Even today, we can find areas where freshwater and saltwater meet and pockets of freshwater are formed. Nobody definitively knows the answer to how the fish survived, but many scientists have studied the topic and have proven that the science does not contradict the Biblical account of the flood.

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