Inspired by the dense swarms that schools of anchovies create in a defensive posture, known as a bait ball (which can be swallowed up entirely by the gaping mouth of a whale), I have created my own shellfish bait ball of antique mother of pearl gaming counters. These fish tokens are surrounded by vintage hooks and lures, also made from mother of pearl, which are in turn encircled by recycled plastic clam shell containers, all of which are suspended from fishing line and hooks. These gaming counters, made of precious mother of pearl which comes from clam shells and often carries a sacred significance of purity, represent the gamble we are taking on the sustainability of ocean life as we rapaciously consume and wreak havoc on the marine environment. The hooks and lures represent overfishing. The plastic containers point to studies that project that by 2050 the mass of plastics in our ocean will be equal to the biomass of fish and are a proxy for us as an apex predator and polluter on the planet.