Generally you only hear terrible news about the worsening state of fish in the ocean (I learned about some of it a few months ago). Recently though I have come across a couple encouraging nuggets.
First, a few countries seem to have had some success “rebuilding” their fish stocks in recent years, including the United States, whose seafood catch reportedly hit a 17-year high in 2011, followed by a slight decline but still relatively bountiful harvest in 2012. It appears that a combination of regulations and innovations are proving effective in limiting the overfishing “tragedy of the commons.”
The global picture is still discouraging, but regional successes make a catastrophic collapse in fish stocks seem far from inevitable, even before price signals really kick in.
Second, I learned that coal power plants are a major source of the mercury pollution that makes so many fish dangerous to eat. This increases my interest in recent news that U.S. coal use dropped sharply in 2012 and appears to be slowly continuing that trend in 2013. If coal’s days are numbered as an energy source, that means the negative externality of toxic fish should strongly decrease along with it.
Once again, the global picture is discouraging; coal use is still increasing worldwide. But if the technological advances in alternative energies continue, that won’t matter very much in a decade or two.
None of this necessarily makes me “excited” about government regulation of overfishing or coal, as I’m sure there plenty of inefficiencies and corruptions therein, but I find it hard to get too upset about them, either. And it definitely makes me want to encourage sustainable fishing and The End Of Coal (TM) via market forces and information.