Fisheries

The old man knew he was going far out and he left the smell of the land behind and rowed out into the clean early morning smell of the ocean. He saw the phosphorescence of the Gulf weed in the water as he rowed over the part of the ocean that the fishermen called the great well because there was a sudden deep of seven hundred fathoms where all sorts of fish congregated because of the swirl the current made against the steep walls of the floor of the ocean.

The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway

Almost everyone enjoys seafood. But the cost of our favorite dishes is rising fast. Today, overfishing and destructive fishing practices threaten millions of jobs, global food security, and the health of the marine environment. At least 60 percent of the world's 200 most valuable fish species are overfished or fished to the limit. Eleven of the world's 15 most important fishing areas are in decline. Even the remote, windswept Southern Ocean around Antarctica is no longer safe from rapacious and illegal fishing.

WWF's Endangered Seas Campaign - Scientific American, The Oceans. Fall 1998. Vol. 9, Number 3.