Fisheries

Question: Why do we worry about “over-fishing” the ocean and running out of fish, but not “over-raising” cows and pigs on land and running out of them?

• How are the worlds fish populations doing?

• How is this effecting total harvest?

• How about total global fishing?

• How can this be, given the picture below?

• Fishing down the food chain…– First they came for the tuna– Then the salmon– Then the sharks– Then the cod– Then the mackerel– Then the herring– Then the anchovies– ?

• Fishing new fish, in new places

Fished or mined?

• What species are most vulnerable?

• High vrs. Low food chain

• Fast breading vrs. Slow

• Where does this get us?

• Why does this happen? The “Tragedy of the commons”

• Is this rational?

• So why does it happen?

• Tragedy of Commons

• Political reality

• This is very hard -- jobs must be lost!– “Fisheries management is an endless argument about how many fish there

are in the sea until all doubt has been removed -- along with all the fish.” Dr. John Gulland

• Shifting baseline! Is the problem fixed yet?

• What are laws in America?

• 10 years to maximum sustainable yield

• Ecosystem management

• It can work! But it is hard, and requires science.

• It is not impossible

• But we do not see the ocean as it could be

• Nor do we get from it what we could