By Jonathan Lash
President, World Resources Institute
Speaking at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)
October 2006
Over a billion people depend on fisheries around the world as their primary source of protein and livelihood.
This map shows, based on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, in dark red those areas that reached their maximum catch and when. Pink shows those areas where fish production has peaked and then began to decline.
In a single generation, we have essentially exhausted the wealth of the seas. Our fisheries are no longer sustainable, they are in constant decline.
Our technology has become so advanced that we have been able to track fish in places we did not know they existed, harvest them to exhaustion, and then move on to new areas and new species.
Jonathan Lash, PresidentJonathan Lash has led the World Resources Institute as its President since 1993.
