The “March of Folly” in Global Fisheries

Abstract

It has now become apparent to most interested parties that marine fisheries throughout the world are in serious trouble. Notably, the large, long-lived, and usually pricey fishes on top of marine food webs have declined by at least one order of magnitude relative to the period immediately following World War II, and global landings peaked in the late 1980s. In many coastal communities such as Newfoundland, fish stocks, which for centuries had supported vibrant fisheries, have collapsed with enormous economic and social costs. Similarly, in Ghana, West Africa, many locals no longer fish because their resource base has been depleted, largely by foreign industrial fisheries. This, in turn, has threatened the food security of local coastal communities.