Fish Stories

Both the New York Times Book Review and The New Yorker covered book reviews associated with fish last week - - in particular the sustainability of our current fishing practices. The book reviewed in both publications was Four Fish (2010) by Paul Greenberg. Given our current concerns regarding sustainability and debates over climate - - it is important to reflect on how the global community has managed the sea and its resources to date. Several points made in both publications are as follows:

• Bluefin tuna has gone from a "bloody fish" mainly seen in cat food to bon-maguro, Japanese sushi. At one point, 1,000-pound giant bluefin were selling for $100,000 or more. No more - - Atlantic bluefin face annihilation.


• The total fish population, once deemed "beyond the limits of our imagination", has declined dramatically across the board. Increased demand, combined with technological advances ranging from factory freezer trawlers to GPS to "smart fish aggregating devices" - - the combination has had a huge negative impact on fisheries.


• Peak fish - - a total world catch of around 85 million tons - - was actually reached in the late 1980s.


• Catch size and the size of the fish actually caught have declined dramatically.


• Current fish consumption is equal to approximately the entire weight of the Chinese population - - 170 billion pounds.


• Most fish you probably get at the store or at a restaurant has been farmed - - with their corresponding issues of cross-breeding and pollution from the farms.


• A review of the box score from the movie Jaws showed somewhat of a tie - - three or four dead humans and three or four dead sharks - - and I think the humans were extremely happy to get out of the movie with a tie. The actual box score is shockingly one sided - - five to eight dead humans per year worldwide and 100 million dead sharks.

Our efforts to manage the resources in the seas have demonstrated the limits of global cooperation - - once you cross into the international zone, competing interests force a movement toward "everyone interests" becoming "my interests." The dual passions of greed and commerce, combined with hunger - - dictate the behavior of all the participates. As we march toward civilisation changing climate change - - we should remember how we failed to manage the resources of our oceans as we attempt to manage an even more complex set of resources on the land and in the air.