I like the article, but the headline seems to be a bit tough (although it may be true, and I’m not focusing on the wrod rape, but more the shock value). It really distracts from your piece. A little sarcasm, or something a little melodramatic’s OK, but the headline on a site calling itself moderate is a bit disorienting. I would hope you guys don’t go the Limbaugh route.

There are two different problems. First, aquaculture exacts a rather heavy environmental toll. Check out what’s going on in Ecuador and Brazil in that regard. Second, in terms of fish farming most commercially farmed species are carnivores and it takes more protein in the form of wild fish to feed the fisheries than the fisheries produce. The more aquaculture, the faster wild stocks are depleted. Both of these may change but that’s the way it is now.

Major fishing nations, as noted above, include Japan, Spain, and South Korea. For reasons not entirely clear to me other countries with enormous fleets, notably Belize, China, and Chile weren’t mentioned. According to the UN’s relevant agency more than three-quarters of the total tonnage of fish caught are destined for Asia and Asian countries don’t have a lot of ready substitutes for wild fish as a protein source for their people.

Commercial fishing is a practically perfect instance of the “Tragedy of the Commons” and solutions which take that into account are probably the most likely to succeed.

They are regulated in most places but as the article pointed out, if the countries that are subsidizing their fishing fleets would just stop that practice and ban certain forms of fishing that catch many non-foodstock fish in their nets and also damage the environment it would be a major step forward. I also think we are going to be forced to develop aquaculture both for the direct harvesting of food and to try and repopulate depleted species. This is a very serious problem that far too few people know about.

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Scary stuff though, we eat fish at least once a week, mostly cod or Salmon. Sometimes Tilapia, and now that I know Orange Roughie is that old I probably won’t eat it.