Excerpt of The End of the Line by Charles Clover
(Page 2 of 5)
Printer Friendly Excerpt
Overfishing has, until now, tended to be a peripheral issue on
the contemporary environmental agenda, which has focused on
damage to the ozone layer, the buildup of greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere, the accumulation of toxic and persistent organic
substances, and the erosion of terrestrial biodiversity.
Perhaps understandably, the public and the news media in
America tend to rank concern about pollution and contamination
that affect human health above concern about conserving
wild fish stocks. In one sense they are right. We need to be well
informed about mercury and PCB contamination in predatory
fish such as tuna, swordfish, and shark. Pregnant women and
parents should indeed follow freely available U.S. Food and
Drug Administration advice on eating fish to reduce exposure
to these contaminants and prevent harm to developing nervous
systems in fetuses and learning impairment in young children.
Yet it is easy to forget that the overfishing of wild fish has a
human health dimension. As catches of wild fish decline we are
forced in the direction of the intensive farming of fish, with all
the attendant problems that this has caused on land—residues
of pesticides and veterinary chemicals, the buildup of contaminants
(PCBs and heavy metals from concentrating the flesh of
smaller wild-caught fish in fish meal), pollution of the seabed,
genetic modification, and the potential for creating diseases that
can cross species barriers, infecting wild populations and even
ourselves. Beneath the near hysteria about mercury and PCBs
in large, long-lived, wild, and predatory fish there is a highly
questionable proposition—that it should be possible to eat orgiastic
amounts of seafood without guilt, whenever one likes,
and without taking any responsibility for the health of the biological
systems from which that seafood comes. It is time to recognize
the selfishness and tunnel vision behind the concern
about mercury and to look more broadly at the problems of the
oceans.
As we do it becomes clear, as I have suggested, that a
perception-changing moment has arrived. It comes with the
realization that in a single human lifetime we have inflicted a
crisis on the oceans greater than any yet caused by pollution. That
crisis compares with the destruction of mammoths, bison, and
whales, the rape of rain forests, and the pursuit of bush meat.
As a method of mass destruction, fishing with modern technology
is the most destructive activity on Earth. It is no exaggeration
to say that overfishing is changing the world. Just as the
deep sea has become the last frontier, its inhabitants a subject of
fascination to filmmakers, so some vulnerable creatures of the
shallower seas, such as sharks, rays, and seahorses, are already
on a slide to extinction. Overfishing, as a direct result of the demand
by consumers in the world’s wealthier countries, threatens
to deprive developing countries of food in order to provide
delicacies for the tables of rich countries, and looks set to rob
tomorrow’s generations of healthy food supplies so that companies
can maintain profitability today.
As fish stocks used in traditional diets crash and others are
found as substitutes, overfishing is altering our diet. It is even
altering evolution: the Atlantic cod has begun to spawn at an
earlier age in response to the pressure of fishing. Overfishing
has been, and no doubt will be again, a cause of war and international
disputes. It is a force in world trade and international
relations, and a corrosive agent in domestic politics.
This book argues that, as a result of overfishing, we are nearing
the end of the line for fish stocks and whole ecosystems in
the world’s oceans, and that it is time we arranged things differently.
It takes the form of a journey around the world made in
several stages and records many conversations about the problems
and potential solutions—a number of which are as controversial
as the problems. It reveals the extent of what is
happening in the oceans in our name while satisfying our appetite
for fish, and shows that the true price of fish isn’t written
on the menu.
© 2006 by Charles Clover. This piece originally appears in Charles Clover’s The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat (The New Press, November 13, 2006). Published with the permission of The New Press and available at good book stores everywhere.
