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Then, about 50 years ago, fishermen began using more-advanced equipment that enabled them to reach farther and deeper in to the ocean. "Now," said Pauly, "we've opened up those natural reserves." The fish have nowhere to hide.

Today, ships such as the Atlantic Dawn, the world's largest fishing Boat, wreak havoc. The Irish ship is equipped with gear that supports some of the most unsustainable types of fishing in existence. (See "Net Effects.") As much as 400 tons of fish a day are caught, frozen, and packaged right on the boat.

Trawling the waters off West Africa, the Atlantic Dawn catches in one month what 7,000 local fishermen in canoes net in a good year. After the ship carries off its haul, few fish remain for local families.

BROKEN CHAIN

Overfishing predatory fish can devastate an ecosystem--a community of organisms and their environment. The disappearance of top predators throws a whole food chain out of balance.

For example, when cod became scarce in the North Atlantic, the sea urchins that the cod preyed on flourished. The urchin population grew unchecked and devoured the kelp forests in which scores of other creatures lived. Kelp is a large brown seaweed. Now huge stretches of seafloor are empty "urchin barrens."

When big fish become scarce, people begin taking smaller members of the same species, in some cases even netting juveniles before they've had a chance to breed. When those young fish become rare themselves, fishermen target smaller species that would normally have been eaten by the larger fish. This cycle, which Pauly has named "fishing down the food web," can cause an entire ecosystem to collapse, leaving "dead zones" where nothing but microbes survive.

SCOOPED UP

Huge ships are scooping up sea life faster than ever before--and not just the fish destined for sale. Many commercially unusable fish are accidentally netted or hooked and end up as bycatch. Unwanted fish, as well as turtles, dolphins, whales, and birds, are thrown back, injured or dying, after they're sorted from the profitable fish. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, bycatch makes up about a quarter of all fish catches, or roughly 27 million tons each year.

Some types of fishing result in higher bycatch than others. Modern shrimp fishing is one of the worst. Shrimpers dredge the seafloor, scraping everything they can from the bottom with enormous nets. For every pound of shrimp, 3 to 15 pounds of other marine organisms are hauled in as bycatch. According to a report by the Marine Conservation Biology Institute, 98 percent of marine species live in, on, or just above the seafloor. Scouring that habitat of life devastates the ocean ecosystem.

LIFE ON THE EDGE

How can such mass slaughter be stopped? The obvious solution--reducing the number of fish caught--is not so simple. The oceans are enormous, and no one owns or regulates them.

Pauly offers the following solution: With the exception of pelagic (deep, open-ocean) species such as tuna, the majority of fish live on continental shelves, the edges of continents covered by relatively shallow ocean waters. Most of the fish stocks that have collapsed, such as rockfish off the California coast, live within the boundaries of just one or a few countries. Now is the time, says Pauly, for governments to set limits on how many fish can be caught in their waters.

Many fisheries scientists believe that marine reserves, where sea life is protected from fishing, must also be created. Currently, marine reserves make up just percent of the oceans--much less than the percent of Earth's land devoted to terrestrial reserves. "There is nothing that corresponds to Yellowstone National Park in the sea," said Pauly, "nothing that even corresponds to your municipal park."

Consumers must also be more aware of the food choices they make. A group called the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has started a labeling system that identifies which fish come from environmentally friendly fisheries. So far, only about 100 products around the world carry the MSC label. Until the labeling system covers all seafood, concerned fish eaters will have to pay closer attention to what they eat. (See "Fish Finder.")

Supermarkets and restaurants seem to have plenty of fish for the taking. "If you look more closely," Myers said, "things aren't so rosy."

SHARKS ATTACKED!

A pointy gray fin slicing through the water is the scariest sight imaginable for most beachgoers. Sharks have a bad reputation. However, in 2002, only three people died from shark attacks worldwide. The same year, humans killed more than 100 million sharks.

Like many other fish, sharks are in trouble. Some are caught for food, but many others are accidentally killed as bycatch when they become tangled in nets and lines set for other sea creatures.

One of the cruelest threats facing sharks is the practice of finning--slicing off a fish's fins and throwing the animal back alive. Finned sharks can't swim, and they sink to the bottom to starve or be eaten themselves.

Shark fin soup, a delicacy in Asia, can cost hundreds of dollars a bowl. Because fins fetch such high prices in markets--a large fin from a whale shark reportedly sells for $10,000 in China--fishermen make enough money hauling just the fins and leaving the rest.

Fishing and finning are taking a huge toll on the world's sharks. Some species don't begin breeding until the sharks are 10 or 20 years old. Because young sharks are now frequently caught or finned, shark populations are not recovering. Scientists Ransom Myers and Boris Worm of Dalhousie University found that between 1986 and 2000, the world's great white shark population decreased by 79 percent. During the same period, the hammerhead population fell by 89 percent. Other shark species are declining at similar rates.

Sharks are powerful, toothy predators, and our natural instinct may be to fear them. For the moment, they have a lot more reason to fear us.

GROWING OUR OWN

As fish in the sea become scarcer, more of the fish on our plates come from farms. The practice of aquaculture--the farming of fish, shellfish, and marine plants for human use or consumption--is growing faster than any other type of food production in the world.

In theory, fish farming sounds like a great idea. However, critics say it damages the environment. Farmed fish are raised in large cages that float in coastal waters. Thousands of fish caged together release huge amounts of waste into small areas.

Critics also note that diseases spread easily from fish to fish in a farm's cramped quarters and can spread to wild species. Infections of sea lice, for example, are much higher among wild fish living near fish farms. Sea lice are parasitic crustaceans that eat through a fish's tissues, weakening or killing the animal.

Farmed fish are fattier, less nutritious, and more contaminated with toxins and chemicals than their wild counterparts are, say critics. Sometimes, pale farmed salmon are even injected with red dye to make them look pinker.

Fish farming is supposed to ease pressure on the oceans, However, piscivorous (fish-eating)fish, such as salmon and sea bass, eat wild--caught fish. Several kilograms of wild fish are caught to sustain every kilogram of farmed salmon or bass, increasing overfishing, not decreasing it.

Despite those drawbacks, proponents say, aquaculture isn't all bad. Some farmed fish, such as tilapia, eat plants. Oysters and mussels are filter feeders--they filter small organisms or food particles from the water. Farming such species doesn't put pressure on wild fish. What more, those "good" types of aquaculture make up 80 percent of global fish farming.

Proponents also argue that modern aquaculture has been around for only 30 years and is already cleaning up its act. Salmon farming in Norway now releases just one-sixth of the nitrogen waste that it did three decades ago. If such improvements continue, fish farming may be the answer to providing a nutritious food source for those who need it while bringing overfishing under control.

FISH FINDER

If they choose their dinners wisely, fish lovers can eat seafood without feeling guilty. The Audubon Society has ranked fish from good choices (green) to so-so (yellow) to bad (red).

Farmed mussels and clams

Alaska salmon

Mahimahi--troll caught

Crawfish

Alaska halibut

Dungeness crab

Tilapia, . farmed

Yellowfin, bigeye, albacore tuna--pole/troll caught

Catfish

Striped bass

Mahimahi--long-line caught

Pacific cod

Pacific flounders and soles

Rainbow trout

American ("Maine") lobster

Squid (calamari)

Ahi tuna (yellowfin and bigeye tuna steak)

Canned tuna

Swordfish

Atlantic cod

Groupers

Shrimp

Atlantic flounders and soles

Sharks

Farmed salmon (including Atlantic)

Orange roughy

Snappers

Chilean sea bass (toothfish)

Atlantic halibut

Multiple Choice

Choose the best answer for each statement. Write its letter in the blank before each number.

-- 1. Which creature is likely to become bycatch? (A) sea gull, (B) sea turtle, (C) both A and B

-- 2. Sharks are often killed just for their (A) fins. (B) skin. (C) teeth.

-- 3. Fishing that can be maintained indefinitely without significantly damaging fish stocks is (A) impossible. (B) sustainable. (C) unsustainable.

-- 4. Which is the percentage of marine species that live in, on, or just above the sea floor? (A) 27 percent, (B) 74 percent, (C) 98 percent

-- 5. Marine species, such as tuna, that spend time in the deep, open ocean are known as (A) continental. (B) pelagic. (C) piscivorous.

-- 6. Which of the following fish is a plant eater? (A) tilapia, (B) salmon, (C) sea bass

-- 7. Which is the percentage of large predatory fish that have been wiped out by commercial fishing in the last half century, according to a new study? (A) 50 percent, (B) 75 percent, (C) 90 percent

-- 8. Which is the best seafood choice, according to the Audubon Society? (A) Atlantic cod, (B) farmed mussels, (C) shrimp

-- 9. Which' type of fishing gear consists of a huge bag-like net that is dragged across the sea floor? (A) purse seine net, (B) sonar, (C) trawl net

-- 10. Kelp is a type of (A) sea bird. (B) seaweed. (C) shellfish.

Short Answer

1. What is bycatch? Give some examples. --

2. What are some possible solutions to the problem of overfishing? --

3. What is sonar, and how is it used in the modern fishing industry? --

4. What is aquaculture? --

5. List two criticisms of aquaculture. --

Multiple Choice

1. C, 2. A, 3. B, 4. C, 5. B, 6. A, 7. C, 8. B, 9. C, 10. B

Short Answer

1. Bycatch is any unwanted creature accidentally caught on a hook or in a net set to catch profitable marine life. Examples include sea birds, turtles, dolphins, and sharks. 2. Solutions to overfishing include setting limits on how many fish can be taken from the waters of a given country; creating marine reserves; encouraging consumers to make wise seafood choices. 3. Sonar is a device that uses reflected sound waves to locate underwater objects. Modern boats use it to locate schools of fish. 4. Aquaculture is the farming of fish, shellfish, and marine plants for human use or consumption. 5. Critics of aquaculture say it

* pollutes the environment by releasing huge amounts of waste into small areas;

* increases the incidence of disease among farmed fish and surrounding populations of wild fish;

* increases overfishing instead of reducing it when the farmed fish are predatory fish that must be fed wild-caught fish;

* produces fish that are fattier, less nutritious, and contain more toxins and chemicals than wild fish do.