Simplistic, naive and unhelpful
A recent editorial in The Economist would have us believe that of all the problems facing the oceans—acidification, plastics pollution, decline of habitat—overfishing is the easy win, the simple fix. Really, the article argues, this whole overfishing mess is the fault of fishermen. If fishers would just wise-up to the long-term environmental consequences of taking too much, they would make the well-informed and uncomplicated choice to just simply catch fewer fish. This finger-pointing exercise is about as helpful and logical as driving past an unemployment line and yelling…