A glimmer of hope for the blue planet

You might think – with its feeding frenzies, vertiginous seamounts, perilous weather and deep history of the monstrous – that the ocean was a wild enough place as it is; but according to the environmentalist Charles Clover it has systematically been ‘de-wilded’ by decades of commercial overfishing, and our seas are now in urgent need of healing. I believe him.

When it comes to conservation, fish hold less appeal than terrestrial fauna: they are perceived as cold-blooded, mostly invisible, lacking in charisma, and often delicious – plus, for centuries, there existed the comfortable delusion that their stocks were inexhaustible (even a proof positive of divine benevolence). Now, thanks to ruinously efficient modern trawling techniques, poorly enforced regulations and sheer greed, this abundance is palpably at an end.

A wider awareness of the crisis, and the attempt to reverse international trends, was promoted by Clover’s previous book, his influential The End of the Line, and a subsequent documentary film which highlighted in particular the plight of bluefin tuna (a single specimen of which was once sold in Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market for £2.5