Fishing is not amenable to enclosure. Unfortunately that's how our society has managed resources in the field for the last 500 years. Worse, the ocean laughs at Westphalian borderisms. It's not only our economic traditions: our political institutions are not up to the task. Stalinism relies on borders too.

We have some arrogance about our recent social achievements, as a species. In a few centuries we went from clashing empires to a semblance of cooperative and democratic internationalism with a general if superficial repudiation of racism and imperialism. Some people, both pro- and anti-capitalist, have suggested that we are within sight of a long-term equilibrium of social development. It's humbling in these circumstances to remember that we still don't even really know what to do about... fish.