Human Population Increase, Economic Growth, and Fish Conservation: Collision Course or Savvy Stewardship?

Abstract

Globally, fishes and fisheries are in severe decline, driven in large part by economic and human population growth. Despite progress in environmental philosophies, legislation, and protection, conflicts between economic/human population growth and fish conservation remain and are intensifying at continental and global scales. The growth of the human enterprise ad infinitum is impossible because of dependence on finite resources; hence policies should leave a margin of error when dealing with the biophysical environment. We suggest a re-definition of Earth stewardship to serve as a conceptual bridge between ecology and economics, recognizing the hubris behind most economic models, which assume that the biosphere is a subset of the economy or else an externality, when in fact Homo sapiens is a species operating within the biosphere. Additional indicators that focus on a different suite of values (e.g., social justice, corporate responsibility, and ethics) would underscore the complexity of economic and human population growth effects on societies and ecosystems, and could help guide us away from unsustainable actions toward those that are “savvier” in terms of co-existence with the resources upon which we depend.