Hunting became a secondary activity 2000 years ago: marine fishing did the same in 2021

Abstract

Ghoti papers Ghoti aims to serve as a forum for stimulating and pertinent ideas. Ghoti publishes succinct commentary and opinion that addresses important areas in fish and fisheries science. Ghoti contributions will be innovative and have a perspective that may lead to fresh and productive insight of concepts, issues and research agendas. All Ghoti contributions will be selected by the editors and peer reviewed. Etymology of Ghoti George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), polymath, playwright, Nobel prize winner and the most prolific letter writer in history, was an advocate of English spelling reform. He was reportedly fond of pointing out its absurdities by proving that ‘fish’ could be spelt ‘ghoti’. That is: ‘gh’ as in ‘rough’, ‘o’ as in ‘women’ and ‘ti’ as in palatial. Abstract Man has been domesticating plants and animals for 10 000 years. Domestication increased so that 2000 years ago, following the ‘Neolithic’ or ‘food‐producing’ revolution, the overwhelming majority of people were making a living by farming. Nowadays hunting, an uncertain way of collecting food, has shifted from a survival activity to a secondary (and most often recreational) activity. Within less than a century, marine fisheries, which constitute the last major world industry exploiting wild animal resources, have reached many ecological and economic limits and they face many uncertainties. In the context of generalised overexploitation, fishing could rapidly follow the same history as hunting and become a marginal activity for the collection of luxury items. This is not only a major concern for the future of an important food source, it also seriously questions our ability to preserve our last and unique relationship with renewable wild animal resources. If we do not want fisheries to be the counterpart of hunting, fisheries and fisheries research need to be ‘modernised’ in a way amenable to integrating new objectives, paradigms and ethical concerns. As scientists, we must direct our efforts toward reconciling long‐term environmental objectives and short‐term constraints by defining new indicators and reference points for management. Will we be able to initiate a ‘human and wild food reconciliation’ revolution?