Think there's enough fish in the sea forever? Think again! At the rate we're fishing, we may round out in mere decades from now! Jason Kelly tells us why and how.

I wrote a piece last fall about Sustainable Fish Choices that caught the attention of some folks - one of whom was an IT professional turned children's book author and marine wildlife champion, Jason Kelly. This man is what you'd call dedicated to put it mildly.

He learned about the devastating effects modern fishing technology coupled with one of our ugliest traits, greed, has had and continues to have on our fish and other marine life. If you think there will be enough fish to last centuries, you're sadly mistaken. Many in the scientific community are saying that as soon as 2048, we could have vast bodies of water with nothing more than sea weed and other microscopic organisms living in them. So much for taking the kids fishing or having them try wild salmon!

I recently had a chance to ask Jason a few key questions about his mission to educate and inform himself, which led to the writing of his book, No Fish in My Dish. I hope you find the conversation as enlightening as I did!

Food Trends: How did you come up with the idea to write this book?

Jason Kelly: I worked at the IBM Silicon Valley Laboratory from 1993 to

1997, and used to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium often.

It taught me about the ocean, and then I went diving and

saw what I'd learned about. Years later, while living in

Japan, I visited the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. It's the

largest in the world, and when I saw the thousands of fish

processed there each day I wondered how many fish there

could be in the ocean. I researched it and discovered that

there aren't enough to withstand the intensity of modern

day fishing efforts. I was drawn into the crisis and researched

further. What I discovered is that a number of excellent

books had been written by marine biologists. I loved the

books and they made all the pertinent points about

over-fishing, but they hadn't made a difference. I decided

that a simpler book with a cute image was needed to make

an impact in today's low-attention-span culture, and that

the book needed to target the consumer side of the problem,

not the supply side (the fishing companies). I wrote the text

in rhyme to be cuter still, and then set out looking for an

illustrator. I couldn't find one that made drawings as cute

as I'd wanted, so I spent a year teaching myself how to

draw and paint, and did the illustrations myself.

FT: Why is conservancy in our oceans, lakes, and water

systems so important to you?

JK: I suppose because the underwater world is so magical.

Every time I go diving or snorkelling, I marvel at the amazing

diversity of life. It's scary at times when you look into deep,

dark water, and then it's a comedy when you watch little fish

come up to your mask and peck at it as if to ask what you're

doing down here! The thought that in just forty years, all

fisheries could be depleted is mortifying to me.

The ocean is basic to life on earth. Everything started there.

It has sustained our species and enhanced our

cultures since the beginning of time. Think of stories from the

bible, where fishermen were central, to tales from Africa

where fishing was central. Could we live in a world without

fish and, therefore, fishing? I don't think so. In many ways,

the end of the ocean's fish will be our end. As the father says

in my book, "A sea without fish is no sea at all.

It's just water and darkness and small things that crawl.

It's like a tree with no leaves or the sky with no sun,

like a man with no family, like a dog that can't run."

FT: What's the #1 fish "myth" that people should know about

that they currently misunderstand?

JK: Probably that "there are plenty of fish in the sea." That saying

is used to describe lots of available mates in the world,

but it has created this feeling that the ocean holds an endless

supply of fish. It doesn't. It's finite, and it's dropping rapidly.

FT: How dire is the situation today?

JK: Extremely. Fishing companies send spotter planes into the air

to find tuna spawning at the ocean surface. At that moment

of greatest vulnerability, the fishing company's boats

surround the entire school of fish in a net and pluck them out

of existence. Against such technology and such ruthless

determination, the fish don't stand a chance. The latest study

from Dalhousie University says that if commercial fishing

continues at today's pace, there will be no sustainable ocean

fisheries in just 40 years. In our lifetimes, we could find a

sea without fish.

FT: What do you tell kids who worry they may never get to

learn about, see, or even taste fish in the future?

JK: I tell them that the future is still theirs, for a little longer. If

we all reduce the amount of fish we consume, we will preserve

fish for today's youngest generation and for future generations

as well. Fishing companies are the very picture of selfishness.

For their own short-term economic gain, they are destroying

some of Earth's greatest living creatures and an important

source of protein for billions of human beings.Owners will not

even leave a viable industry for their own children, so do you

think they care a moment about the future of other children?

No way. So, children need to take control of their own

futures right now by eating fewer fish, telling others about the

problem, and enjoying the result of fewer fish bought leading

to fewer fish caught, and an ocean of fish left intact for all time.

FT: What can we all do on a practical level (apart from no fish

in my dish) to help this situation get better?

JK: The beauty of this problem is that it's so solvable. First of all,

by refraining from eating fish for just five days a week, we will

keep the consumption of fish reasonable and allow them time

to reproduce to sustainable levels. Second, when we do eat

fish, we should eat ones that are already at safe levels. To help

with that, we have arranged to distribute with each copy of my

book a set of cards to help guide people's purchase of fish. They

include Seafood Watch cards from the Monterey Bay

Aquarium, "Eco" label cards from the Marine Sustainability

Council which labels packages in grocery stores as well, South

African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI) cards

from the Endangered Wildlife Trust, and SeaChoice cards

from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society focusing on

Canadian fisheries.

FT: What would you like to let our leaders know regarding the

endangered nature of fish?

JK: Simply that laws are not being enforced, and have therefore

been nearly worthless so far. There's no point in a law if it

is not enforced.We have limits set on how many tons of

fish can be extracted from various fisheries, yet fishing

companies routinely violate the limits because there are no

consequences to doing so. Fishing companies are making a

fortune killing endangered species in flagrant violation of

international laws, and nobody cares. I'm hoping to create

an awareness, a level of caring, before the fish have been

depleted to levels from which they can never recover.

FT: As an aside, have you seen the movie Sharkwater by

Rob Stewart? In it, he discusses how the Taiwanese mafia

has bought out whole segments of the fishing industry off

of Costa Rica, and paid officials to turn a blind eye to

shark fin poaching. What do you think of the film and what

would you tell people who eat shark fin?

JK: I'm afraid I haven't seen the film. However, I can confirm

that organized crime is involved in over-fishing around the

globe. In Japan, the notorious yakuza make enormous sums

of money selling dolphin meat as whale. They don't do it

directly, of course, but they have interests in companies that

do it. They have depleted nearly all of Japan's popular fish

to dangerous levels, and then have the audacity to tell

Japanese people that too many whales are eating all the

fish, so they need to catch more whales to save the poor

dying fish! Their only goal appears to be to scoop every last

living creature with a price out of the ocean and sell it.

As for shark finning, it's atrocious, akin to killing an elephant

for its tusks and leaving the rest to rot. Often, the struggling

and finless sharks are dumped overboard to sink to the

bottom of the sea, their fins en route to soup bowls across

China and elsewhere. Before I knew of this problem, I ate

shark fin soup in Tokyo and it was delicious. However, it

was not delicious enough to justify the price, and there are

plenty of ways to make a delicious soup without being so

cruel to a living creature. To people who eat shark fin, I

would suggest choosing a sustainable ingredient instead,

so you can enjoy both the taste and a guilt-free conscience.

To those who say they feel no guilt, I suggest watching a

squirming body of a shark sink slowly into the dark of the

ocean, and point out that finning is the culprit.

FT: Some say technology has led to this problem. Would you

say that's the case, or would you point to greed as another

factor?

JK: I would point to greed first. True, improved technology has

given mankind the ability to pull far more fish from the ocean

than ever before, but the desire to do so is the real problem.

A wise CEO of a fishing company could stop his company

from depleting an entire stock of fish. If every CEO acted in

the same way, brilliant new technology would pose no

threat because it wouldn't be abused. On the other hand, a

greedy fisherman could do little damage 200 years ago because

he had just a rod and a net. Maybe he could figure out how to

cast dozens of lines, but even that would be tiny compared to

modern factory fishing methods.

Ultimately, I'd say it's the combination of greed and technology

that has brought us to this point. Of the two, I'd flag greed as

the more devastating, because it's inherently dangerous whereas

technology is only dangerous when abused.

FT: If you could be a fish, which would it be and why?

JK: A fun question! I would be a marlin. Blue and black marlins

can grow to longer than sixteen feet and weigh more than

1,800 pounds. They are fast swimmers, very majestic with

crest shaped dorsal fins, and better to watch than eat. I would

hope to live long and free.