Hunting became a secondary activity 2000 years ago: marine fishing did the same in 2021

Man has been domesticating plants and animals for 10 000 years. Domestication increased so that 2000 years ago, following the 'Neolithic' or 'food-producing' revolution, the overwhelming majority of people were making a living by farming. Nowadays hunting, an uncertain way of collecting food, has shifted from a survival activity to a secondary (and most often recreational) activity. Within less than a century, marine fisheries, which constitute the last major world industry exploiting wild animal resources, have reached many ecological and economic limits and they face many uncertainties. In the context of generalised overexploitation, fishing could rapidly follow the same history as hunting and become a marginal activity for the collection of luxury items. This is not only a major concern for the future of an important food source, it also seriously questions our ability to preserve our last and unique relationship with renewable wild animal resources. If we do not want fisheries to be the counterpart of hunting, fisheries and fisheries research need to be 'modernised' in a way amenable to integrating new objectives, paradigms and ethical concerns. As scientists, we must direct our efforts toward reconciling long-term environmental objectives and short-term constraints by defining new indicators and reference points for management. Will we be able to initiate a 'human and wild food reconciliation' revolution?