The Fight Is Never Over

Well, another one is clearly our oceans, which basically are completely in crisis. The fish stocks are considerably depleted: 90 percent of the large fish of the oceans are gone. And, you know, the oceans are being harvested at an alarming rate and the technology that's being used is exceedingly destructive. For example, bottom-trawling essentially clear-cuts the ocean floor. It ruins the substrate, so you can't assume new fish stocks are going to develop there.

What's the solution?

It requires major changes in ocean policy at the federal level, setting aside parts of the ocean as protected areas where fish stocks can resume. You've got to remember that the majority of the world's people get major protein from fish, and so the depletion of fish is an ecological problem but also a serious human problem. We need to feed 6-plus billion people around the earth, so it's really important to take this issue very seriously.

If it's such a big issue, why haven't we been hearing more about it?

This is a long-term challenge for us. Look at global warming--people are just now beginning to understand that global warming is a threat, and polls are coming out showing that the majority of Americans think global warming is a threat we have to address. Oceans policy hasn't reached that level of public awareness. Maybe people who fish or surf or sail know, but the general public doesn't. And you can't get policies adopted until you have a constituency of people who care about them.

And preserving fish stocks isn't the most charismatic cause imaginable.