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inviable. Other members of the ecosystem may experience food shortages or an 

 uimatural relaxation of predation pressure. The next stage is ecological 

 extinction, where the animal's population density is depressed to such low levels 

 that the species no longer fulfills is role as prey, predator, or competitor in the 

 ecosystem. As a result entire marine communities may undergo a profound shift 

 in numerical and functional relationships. Ironically, less valuable (to fishers) 

 species often increase when this happens, and their proliferation may supress 

 recovery of more valuable species. Another stage, commercial extinction, occurs 

 when the animal is so rare that it is no longer profitable for anyone to fish for. 

 Compensatory price increases may delay ommercial extinction. For example, in 

 the bluefin tuna fishery, American fishers may spend weeks trying to catch a 

 single bluefin. But demand by Japanese sushi connoisseurs makes each individual 

 fish worth between six and thirty thousand dollars to the fisher; enough to 

 compensate the time that must now be invested in each capture. If commercial 

 and ecological extinction are not reversed, total extinction may become a 

 possibility. But by the time total extinction becomes an issue, all the other 

 practical effects of the animal's disappearance from commerce and from the 

 ecosystem have already been suffered by the fishing industry. To date, total 

 extinctions are rare in the oceans, but this may not always remain so. Several 

 fish species have been listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered 

 Species Act. The western Atlantic bluefin tuna population, whose breeding 

 population is estimated to have declined over 90% since 1975, from a quarter 

 million to 20,000 animals, has been proposed for listing under the Convention on 

 International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Several conservation 

 groups around the world are now seeking CITES listing for other bluefin tuna 

 populations. Additionally, the Fish and Wildlife Service is considering whether 

 to propose CITES listing of several shark species that have been seriously 

 depleted (their fins are in demand for soup in China, which imports them from 

 many countries). We may unfortunately see more fish on endangered species lists 

 in the future. If we do, it may not be too late to save them. But it will likely be 

 too late to save the fishing jobs and coastal communities that once depended on 

 them. 



Could we farm our seafood the way we farm other animals? Some of it, yes. 

 But overall, fish farming will not produce more seafood than can catching wild 

 fish in well-managed fisheries, because we could bring under control only a very 

 small fraction of the oceans' naturally productive regions. Fish farming or 

 mariculture can be economically profitable, though it often entails real costs 

 which are currently external to the market. These include additions of hormones 

 and pharmaceuticals into aquatic environments, introduction of diseases, 

 introduction of non-native animals, inbreeding and release of genetically inferior 

 animals, and destruction of naturally productive habitats or natural coastal 

 barrier systems to make ponds. There is as well the issue of privatizing public 

 waterways. Also, we would lose the rich array of seafoods now available, in 

 favor of a few easily raised varieties. Further, we would be laboring through 

 farming to replace some of the wild fish that could— if we managed fishing 

 responsibly— be free for the taking in abundance. It might be as though we were 

 expelled from the Ocean of Eden. 



With catches plunging and more operations becoming marginalized, the value 

 of fishing boats has plummeted, trapping many who would like to leave the 

 business but who are stuck with mortgage payments on unsellable boats. These 

 people are effectively forced to continue fishing. They have no apparent options, 

 no prospects, and a future that is at best uncertain. For those who want to stay in 

 fishing for the way of life it offers, the menacing specter of declining profits is a 

 constant strain. For young people who want to get into fishing, the outlook is 



