There was a fairly recent Harper's article that described the impending doom of the world's oceanic life. It shocked me. I know humanity has been laying waste to ecological health, but the idea that we'll probably live to see the ocean's mostly dead is macabre in its implications.
I was thinking about this and found a nice piece from Conservation Magazine online, describing ways to reduce the destruction of marine ecosystems. They have a list of ten major remediable issues (damn metric system) some of which are very revealing.
Here's the piece:
10 Solutions to Save the Ocean
I wanted to draw the reader's attention especially to "Running on Empty." Industrial fisheries use the technique of "bottom trawling", dragging huge nets through the sea weighed down with heavy rollers and steel plates. This is an insane, destructive practice. It also wouldn't be economically feasible without fuel subsidies. Industrial fishing is far more fuel intensive than artisanal fishing, pound for pound, and the escalating fuel costs around the world could put a damper in this disgusting practice.
Anyway, interesting stuff, makes the world seem slightly less dark.