Our oceans have been the victims of a giant Ponzi scheme, waged with Bernie Madoff-like callousness by the world's fisheries.

We transform the world, but we don't remember it. We adjust our baseline to the new level, and we don't recall what was there.

There is no need for an end to fish, or to fishing for that matter. But there is an urgent need for governments to free themselves from the fishing-industrial complex and its Ponzi scheme, to stop subsidizing the fishing-industrial complex and awarding it fishing rights, when it should in fact pay for the privilege to fish.

Tilapia have often been represented as the aquatic chicken, and it's perfectly justified.

The crisis of the fisheries is similar to our economy. This is not one fishery failing, but the whole system.

Eating a tuna roll at a sushi restaurant should be considered no more environmentally benign than driving a Hummer or harpooning a manatee.