To really understand the ocean, we need to go back in time

NOT that long ago, the world’s oceans were viewed as too gargantuan for humans to influence. This view was voiced most notably in 1883 by the English biologist Thomas Huxley, who in his inaugural address to the International Fisheries Exhibition in London asserted that “all the great sea fisheries are inexhaustible”.

Nowadays, such naivete seems inconceivable. We’re witnessing rampant overfishing and the decline in size of commercially important fish; rising water temperatures and even “marine heatwaves” that are throwing ecosystems into disarray and driving fish and crustacean stocks to the relief of deeper water and towards the poles; acidity that is challenging the ability of sea creatures to form shells; lessening oxygen levels and “dead zones”; contamination from oil spills – a gloomy totality that has come to be known as the “aquacalypse”.

The seemingly inexhaustible is becoming dangerously exhausted.