Are Fisheries or Science in decline?

News stories, government reports, environmental NGOs and even the most august scientific journals all inform us that marine fisheries are threatened by widespread and severe overfishing. However, catch statistics and other empirical evidence present a somewhat different picture. Between 1950 and 1990 the global wild caught marine fisheries production increased fairly steadily from around 16 million tonnes to about 80 million tonnes. Since then for two decades it has fluctuated between 78 and 88 million tonnes.