Fished Out

50 years ago, the oceans were full of big fish. Not anymore. But today, some stocks are on the verge of collapse, and what's left isn't much bigger than bait, according to a recently released study.

"The point is our greed is limitless. Our demands are limitless," says UBC fisheries professor Daniel Pauly.

Pauly adds that historically, whenever a new fishery was discovered, within a decade, they had to quit because it was gone. Then, he says, the fisheries managers arrive.

"So management in expanding fisheries is always developing new ways of closing barns out of which the horses have long escaped. So in a sense fisheries managers is decorating the barn door or having bigger locks, triple locks and quadruple locks, but the horse is gone because it takes such a short time for the population to be reduced."