Either jobs or nature. The disaster that has beset the world's fisheries shows how false those choices can be.
Fish are both a natural and an economic resource.
When fisheries are depleted or their delicate breeding grounds are destroyed, people lose their jobs, go hungry or pay higher prices at the supermarket. That is happening to fishing and fishers around the globe, and there is plenty to suggest that the worst is yet to come. Growth has cannibalized the resources on which entire economies are built. The fishing crisis is a case study in how today's accelerating growth can overwhelm slow-moving, sometimes outdated institutions. Government agencies and regulatory systems created to manage small, insular fisheries, for example, have been overmatched by the explosive growth of fleets and world markets.