Unlimited Food from the Sea?

● Writing in the article “Man, Food and Environment,” L. R. Brown and G. Finsterbush comment on the proposition that the ocean can be a major source of food for earth’s growing population:

“The closer man has looked, the more apparent it has become that the ocean is not a limitless storehouse of food forever there for the catching. . . . The open sea​—an estimated 90 percent of the ocean—​is considered a biological desert, contributing almost nothing to current world fishing and offering little potential for the future. Half of the oceanic fish supply is produced in coastal waters and a few offshore regions, together comprising almost 10 percent of the ocean area. About 80 percent of the world fish catch is landed in these regions. . . . Man dreams of farming the ocean expanses with methods similar to those used on land. Severe technological, economic, and political constraints exist, however, and the transition from fisherman to farmer in the ocean is not imminent. Man’s hope for the immediate future lies not with the ocean but with increasing the productivity of the land.”