Writing in 1999, boat captain Linda Greenlaw claimed, “Fishermen using only hooks and harpoons could never wipe out any species of fish that reproduce by spawning, such as swordfish. And in seventeen years of swordfishing I have seen no evidence of depletion.” Continuing, she asserted, “U.S. fishermen are not pirates. We are among the most regulated fishermen in the world, and penalties for non-compliance are stiff. Fishermen of my generation are conservation-minded. We are also frustrated that some of the public is being brainwashed with misinformation by a group of do-gooders.” Greenlaw concluded, “If a problem with overfishing does develop,...

Carl Safina has been by far most influential of the writers who have since the 1990s decried over-fishing. After earning a doctorate in ecology from Rutgers University, Safina founded the Living Oceans Program of the National Audubon Society in 1990, serving for the next decade as its vice president for ocean conservation.¹ In 2003 he co-founded the Blue Ocean Institute, an organization that uses science, art, and literature to try to inspire closer relationships between people and the sea. Profiled by the New York Times and featured on the ABC television program Nightline, Safina was named one of the “100...

In 2008, Alaskan salmon fisher Bert Bender looked back over his thirty years of gillnetting in Cook Inlet, near Anchorage. He noted that “the thought of any commercial fishing in the twenty-first century arouses our fears for the endangered seas.” However, he further observed that, “thanks to our marine biologists and management programs that have existed for many years in Alaska, the wild sockeye has not been and probably will not be driven to extinction by the commercial fishery.” In fact, he concluded, “Most fishermen know quite well that we must be restrained.”¹ Bender was correct. Moving from open-access to...

Returning to her home port of Cordova, Alaska, on 28 April 1976, the king-crab boat Master Carl encountered mechanical problems in the face of a fierce storm featuring waves thirty feet high. Water entered the vessel’s hull as she passed near Montague Island just outside Prince William Sound, and at midnight the ship’s flooded engine died. Tossed by waves, the Master Carl rolled onto her side and her captain and crew members had to abandon her. After donning insulated survival suits, they clambered into a life raft and, with great difficulty, cast off. Caught in the waves, the raft overturned...

When Americans first began fishing in a serious way for sablefish (black cod) and pollock in Alaskan waters in the 1980s, they encountered an unusual problem. In their trawling operations, they caught so many bottom fish that they had great difficulty hauling their nets back to the surface, even with power winches. In fact, several crews found their boats “anchored” to the sea bottom by over-full, “slugged” nets. Unwilling or unable to quickly release their nets, several boats, incapable of moving, foundered in heavy seas. Most captains soon learned, however, to avoid the extensive red blotches that showed up on...

In 2003, Frank Dulcich, Jr., who headed the Pacific Seafood Group, then the fifth-largest supplier of seafood to the American market, expressed concerns to an interviewer about over-fishing. Talking about West Coast processors, he observed, “We’re losing retail and food service business because they [retail outlets for seafood, such as restaurants and grocery stores] want consistent supply.” Still, when asked whether he thought there was “light at the end of the tunnel,” Dulcich replied, “there’s lots of fish out there, we’re seeing lots of salmon.” In fact, “most all species except for a few rockfish species” were “stable or increasing.”...

Faced with localized shortages of desirable species of seafood, the upscale Waterfront Restaurant on Maui reached tying agreements with local fishers. Its owners advertised in 2008 that, “Every day Maui fishermen call Chef Bob to tell him what they’re bringing in, which gives him and his kitchen staff the freshest fish available. Since we are right on Ma’alea Harbor, Chef Bob can inspect fish even before it’s off the boat.”¹ Few restaurants went that far in securing fish supplies, but many changed their sourcing methods in the faces of over-fishing and new regulatory regimes set up to deal with that...