End of seafood?
Will seafood take the place of wild game and cease to be a major food source for the world?
In a widely publicized study that appeared recently in the journal Science, an international team of scientists and economists warns that marine fish and seafood species could collapse by the year 2048. The authors say there is hope, but not without a drastic change in how the nations of the world manage our fisheries.
The answer we’re hearing from the United States government: privatized fisheries and industrial fish farms.
As we have seen through individual fishing quota programs, turning the sea’s fish into a private property right provides incentives to waste fish. It is also contrary to ecosystem-based management – a core recommendation of the international scientists who authored the recent study.
And fish farms? As one of the study’s authors points out, fish farming can increase pressure on wild fish because many farmed species must eat processed wild fish.
While there is no easy solution, we can safely say that privatizing the commons and industrial sea farming are not the answer.
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