Just
there are no more fish doesn’t mean the
is done as a
source. Because a
small amount of
surface means a lot of space below, seaweed farms could be the
source of the future. Humans should eat the entire water column, says Bren Smith, a commercial fisherman in New York. Leaving home at 14 to catch cod and crab, Smith grew disillusioned by what he calls "one of the most unhealthy, destructive forms of
production on the planet." He has since turned a
small muddy patch of the Long Island Sound into a three-dimensional
farm that he claims can not only help save the oceans, but feed the world. At the moment, commercial fishing picks off top predators such as tuna, while ravaging the rest by towing miles of drift nets or dragging metal chains on the seabed. This age of hunting and gathering is now coming to an end whether we like it or not. The ocean’s bounty has proved not only finite: it simply no longer exists. Decades of research about the world’s fisheries show most populations have been fished to their limit, or are in collapse. Global marine catches, which peaked in the mid-1990s, are now in a slow decline, states the FAO’s 2012 review (PDF).Read Full Story