It's about time: New beginnings and old good ideas in fisheries science

Views about aquatic resource management are changing, particularly now that resource yields from world fisheries have been shown to be not only unsustainable, but steadily declining under conventional management practices. There is ample reason for re examination, and more pragmatic definitions of what is meant by sustainability. There have nearly always been clear, reasonable means for making appropriate decisions that would have safeguarded most of the ocean's living resources, but in general greed and lack of societal will, as articulated at national governmental levels, have promoted the present resource deterioration. I also posit that the underlying science in support of sustainable fisheries decision-making has been responsible for a great proportion of this deterioration. Revitalization of fisheries science, indeed rehabilitating the affected fisheries, will be required to regain the losses in credibility of the agencies and of the underlying science. This will depend upon resumption of integrated environmental monitoring, more enlightened application of what is already known, and reconnection of the science to the several industries involved, i.e. fishing, processing and marketing. Management implemented at the market place may be one of the few remaining options to secure the sustainability of natural resources.