Today, all over the planet, the world's fishing grounds are in a rapid state of decline and are literally on the verge of complete and total collapse.

Overfishing is largely responsible for the rapid decrease in the size of the once abundant fish stocks in the world's oceans. With world population now at a staggering 7 billion and growing, more and more people are seeking protein sustenance from the rivers and oceans of the world, putting highly exploitative, unsustainable pressure on the ability of marine ecosystems to continue to maintain harvestable yields.

In addition to declining fisheries, habitat destruction from deep sea ocean trawlers, by-catch (the catch of undesirable species of fish and mammals), increased levels of toxic pollutants from both land and sea vectors, as well as increased human protein demand, have all combined to put many of our oceans ecosystems in a state of definative crisis.

The last several years has seen global commercial fishing interests take in over 180 billion pounds of fish annually from our oceans, a rate so extreme that many fish stocks are unable to reproduce quickly enough to maintain stable populations, thus leading to reduced catch and ultimately, collapse of once productive fishing zones. This threatens the Earth's largest and most important natural system, as well as the hundreds of millions of people who depend on the seas for their livelihood and the billions who rely on the oceans for their continued sustenance.

It has been estimated that within 50 years, if current rates of overfishing continue, the ocean's fisheries will completely collapse.

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Steve Jones
Baja, Mexico

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SOURCES:

1. Fish Wise
P.O. Box 233
Santa Cruz, California 95061 USA
Website: http://www.fishwise.org

2. Oceana
2501 'M' St- NW
Washington, DC 20037 USA
Website: http://www.oceana.org

3. Environmental Defense Fund
Oceans Alive Campaign
Website: http://www.oceansalive.org

4. Blue Ocean Institute
250 Lawrence Hill Rd
Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724 USA
Website: http://www.blueocean.org

5. Aquatic Protection Agency
222 E Cliff Dr- #234B
Santa Cruz, California 95062 USA
Website: http://www.aquaticprotection.org

6. 1% for the Planet
P.O. Box 118
Newburyport, Massachussetts 01950 USA
Website: http://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org

7. The Ocean Conservancy
Website: http://www.oceanconservancy.org

8. Greenpeace International
Save Our Seas Campaign
Website: http://www.greenpace.org/international/campaigns/save-our-seas-2

9. National Marine Sanctuary Foundation
Website: http://www.nmsfocean.org

10. National Environmental Trust
Conserve Our Ocean Legacy
1200 18th St- NW, 5th Floor
Washington, DC 20036 USA
Website: http://www.oceanlegacy.org