For decades, the scientific and NGO community has been raising the alarm about the dangers of overexploiting fish stocks globally, often shouting into the void calling for action before, during and after collapse. Fish stocks that have shaped coastal communities and industries – those which have been the basis of the identity and purpose of fishers worldwide – pushed beyond reasonable, healthy or sustainable population health. Dwindling fish stocks left only able to sustain ever-dwindling and beleaguered communities, a vicious vortex ending in a black hole of nothingness.

Stocks are being depleted faster than they can fill our seas, and the forces of that depletion have conveniently forgotten that without fish, there won’t be any fishing. Or fishing communities.

The world has seen multiple collapses of fish stocks since both the industrialisation of and technological advances made in fishing equipment. It’s no surprise that the boom in catches of many species, thanks to the mechanised fleet, is so often followed by the bust in stock health. Companies driven by shareholder profits and growth will (unsurprisingly) opt for short-term benefits over careful management of resources for future generations and the safeguarding of healthy seas.

One of the most striking examples of this is the collapse of the northwest Atlantic cod fishery in the 1990s after decades of rampant overfishing. Bigger ships, poor fisheries management, deeper and longer trawls, bycatch impacts, and huge catches resulted in a virtual eradication of cod. Observational data and sustained catches due to modern technology perhaps helped blind quota decisions and contributed to the assumption that the stock was in a healthier state than it was. It’s just one example of a tragic story that continues to repeatedly play out within governments and fisheries around the world.

Multinational corporate greed is asset-stripping the ocean of life and historic fishing communities of their livelihoods and their future. And they are doing so while blaming the NGOs and the experts for sounding the alarm – stakeholders who take no fish from the sea, at least professionally speaking.

We should begin asking specific questions of the big industry actors, those that continue to sail roughshod over the global ocean and coastal communities.

Here are my own starters for ten: is the overexploitation of fish stocks, beyond scientific advice, a major driver of stock collapse? Has industrialised fishing technology and capability contributed to the collapse of fish stocks? Does following the best available fisheries science help fish populations recover and remain healthy? And does allowing space for fish to spawn safely in an intact and thriving ecosystem help replenish fish stocks?