Europe tries to overhaul fisheries, but there aren't enough fish

As if we didn't know, many fisheries are in poor shape. In Europe, where there are countries with a rich tradition of seafood consumption and over-consumption, fishery management is under fire.

"The system is widely regarded as having failed to conserve the fisheries resources of the EU," wrote two researchers in a 2005 analysis. Another 2009 analysis of the system used to determine the 'total allowable catch' under the European systems called it "complicated, inaccurate and ineffective".

The fundamental complaint from scientists is that the present system has resoundingly failed to make fishing sustainable. Last year, Rainer Froese and legal expert Alexander Proelß at the University of Kiel, Germany, reported that "even if fishing were halted in 2010, 22% of the stocks are so depleted that they cannot be rebuilt by 2015".

That date is important as it represents the deadline by which an international agreement says stocks should hit a target to "maintain or restore populations of harvested species at levels which can produce the maximum sustainable yield"

We need to catch less wild fish. Simple. Period. End of Story.