It's worse than that, Donal. We're looking at roughly a 50% increase in global population in the next 40-50 years. Many of them rely on fish as their primary protein source. Ocean fish, that is - much of the world's population lives within a couple meters of sea level, which needless to say is generally in coastal areas.

In the same time window, projections are suggesting a serious depletion of ocean food fish stocks.

The population curve's rise also carries some significant - and ominous - implications for energy use and the availability of potable water.

The future ain't what it used to be.

The salmon in the Northwest are having a hard go at it, too.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/eyepiece/story/755882.html

Every time I eat Tuna I have the thought that it will probably not be around by the time I retire.
=(

Is there never any good news on the environmental front?

I really had no idea of the problems in the fishing industries. The oceans are so vast after all. An unlimited resource I should think.

How were we able to screw it all up in such a short time?

You point out the futility of our noble actions when so many others can cancel them out so easily...This is a problem.

I think the The Mainstreaming of the Environmental Movement is long overdue. Who doesn't believe in Clean air and clean water? We should be able to organize citizens by the millions for these causes, but for many, Environmentalism means tree-hugging, anti-corporate, basically anti-American stifling of progress.

Somehow we have let Corporate America hijack the environmental ethic, with "green" products, "Ecomagination", "Beyond Petroleum", etc, etc. All these things do are "greenwash" the reality that the goal is to sell more shit, and keep on polluting.

Perhaps one good result from total economic collapse will be the ruination of the grocery superstore -- you know the ones I mean, the well-lit ones in tony neighborhoods in which mountains of fish are "styled" -- displayed under warm and fuzzy halogen lighting and dressed up with appropriate herbal accessories until they.... do not sell,in their multitudes. The most egregious one I ever saw was in Atlanta -- Harry's and its satellite, the name of which I cannot recall. Mountains and mountains of beautiful fish, not all of which were selected for flavor, but rather, many of which were selected for color or form or simply size. What happens to these fish when the old saw pertains:" fish and house guests go bad in three days..."? I can't speak for what happens to overripe house guests but the fish I support. Shall they have given their lives, not to nourish, but to be tipped into a dumpster? Hell's bells - do I have to give up salmon and bass now? Or is too late, already?

And that's not even counting the potential damage to marine habitat from ocean acidification.

And none of this is talking about the real issue. How to change our economic system so that it doesn't require growth (both population and economic) to thrive.
Can you imagine a life or an economic system that thrives on stability? Where the population doesn't change where there is enough for everyone and where the natural world is unthreatened?
Well, thats the first step, being able to imagine it. Because that is the only way we will survive as a society, as a people for more than a few hundred years. Maybe even less.

Maybe we can learn to eat cars fried in motor oil with a side salad of steel belted radials topped with red transmission fluid,there's an overabundant surplus of auto's around.

Seriously, thanks Donal, very good post.Here is an ironic picture that shows fish and also the power of working together, check it out > power

I live in the eastern U.S. and as a kid and adult fished recreationally the waters from LI Sound up to Gloucester. Cod was always on the menu for recreational fishermen. However, from my teen years to four plus decades later Cod have grown scarce in much of this once renowned fishery. Frankly, I blame commercial fishing for this. I can say for sure that weekend fishermen, with their small catch for a few hours on a Saturday, could not have influenced the fish stocks this way. Once upon a time a recreatioal fisherman trying to put food on the table might catch 50 or 100 Cod but that's nothing compared to the tens of thousands in the hold of a commercial vessel. In various state waters of New England there is a catch limit and has been for a long time. The offshore commercial fishery was totally closed or severely restricted years back and I think it still is. Here are a couple of articles about the state of the fishery.

http://www.gloucestertimes.com/punews/local_story_247225608.html?keyword=topstory

http://www.gloucestertimes.com/punews/local_story_050225017.html

There is a real pissing contest between government regulators and fishermen in New England and has been for as a long as I can remember. The same holds true on our west coast for the Salmon fishery. I've lived and fished recreationally in both places and it is a battle that never stops. That wasn't true though until the fish stocks started to dwindle in the sixties. Government stepped in to preserve the fisheries with the natural result of devastating the livelihoods of commercial fishermen. For many it was a way of life but their success paved the way for their downfall.

This is just another example where it's clear that every resouce of this earth has a limit. Foodstocks of all types are sure to be seriously challenged as the global population increases. Whether that challenge can be met is an open question. Mass starvation is not an attractive alternative but is already occurring in some places. Unfortunately, I don't think the kind of global cooperation required to solve this will be forthcoming any time soon. Here in the U.S. we know all too well who wins in the contest between the haves and have nots. This reality pretty much seals the deal.