Here’s a story that kind of got lost in the excitement of last week. With that unfamiliar feeling of hope running through my veins, I almost forgot that we’re still fucked. What now you ask? A major scientific study has concluded that if current trends continue, there will be no fish left in the ocean by 2050.

“The way we use the oceans is that we hope and assume there will always be another species to exploit after we’ve completely gone through the last one,” said research leader Boris Worm, from Dalhousie University in Canada. “What we’re highlighting is there is a finite number of stocks; we have gone through one-third, and we are going to get through the rest.” Steve Palumbi, from Stanford University in California, added; “This century is the last century of wild seafood.”

In 2003, 29% of open sea fisheries were in a state of collapse, with less than 10% of their original yield. Bigger vessels, better nets, and new technology did not bring larger returns. In fact, the global catch fell by 13 percent between 1994 and 2003. Historical records from coastal zones in North America, Europe, and Australia also showed declining yields, and declining species diversity. The yields are not just of fish, but of other kinds of seafood too.

There is a direct correlation between a loss of biodiversity and reductions in fish stocks. In areas where fishing has been banned or heavily restricted, biodiversity comes back within the zone, and restores populations of fish just outside the area.

However, protecting stocks demands political action. Boris Worm is frustrated with the unwillingness of politicians to act on the advice of scientists.

For example, European politicians have repeatedly ignored recommendations to halt the North Sea cod fishery. Without a ban, scientists fear the North Sea stocks could follow the Grand Banks cod of eastern Canada into a terminal decline. “I’m just amazed, it’s very irrational,” he said. “You have scientific consensus and nothing moves. It’s a sad example; and what happened in Canada should be such a warning, because now it’s collapsed it’s not coming back.”

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