The world's ocean fisheries are being depleted. Currently, the world's major fisheries are sustainable and renewable if conservation measures are begun. The culprits are over-fishing, wasting of fish, and environmental changes. The oceans have a history of recovery from mass extinction. About 235 million years ago, there was a massive fish die off which killed approximately 96 percent of the fish in the sea.1 The fish at that time were able to repopulate the oceans. There is every reason to believe that the world's fisheries will recover from their presently reduced biomass if the mortality rate from fishing is reduced.
In 1950, the world's fishermen caught 20 million metric tons of seafood.2 By 1990, the world's fishing fleets were catching 84 million metric tons of fish which they brought into port and another 27 million metric tons which the fishermen threw overboard as waste.3 The combined harvest and waste of an estimated 111 million metric tons of seafood is greater than the 100 million metric tons of seafood which scientists estimate is the maximum sustainable global harvest of marine fish.4
In addition to the legally reported fish harvests, and the acknowledged waste, there exists an unreported fish harvest that may be as high as a third of the legal catch. Assuming this is the case, then the world's supply of marine fish is being depleted at a rate greater than what can be replenished. The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization stated in 1994 that approximately 60 percent of the world's fish populations that they monitor were fully exploited or depleted.5
Since World War II, many nations have amassed large fishing fleets. A modern trawler can collect a million pounds of fish in a single day.6 The oceans fisheries are a free public resource. A fish caught in open water does not have an individual price tag for the fisherman to pay. By the 1970's most countries had established international boun...