May 3, 2022 — As older fishing fleets retire, new technologies help to create a more sustainable solution for an industry historically averse to change. The Blue Revolution, the new book from Nicholas P. Sullivan, tells that story.
Published last April, The Blue Revolution – Hunting, Harvesting, and Farming Seafood in the Information Age, dedicates 272 pages to tell the story of a long and worrisome problem for the world’s oceans, with few answers: overfishing.
In his new book the author reveals how while other industries have embraced technology, using anything from artificial intelligence to drones to become more efficient, “commercial fishing, one of the oldest industries in the world, is a stark exception. Industrial fishing, with factory ships and deep-sea trawlers that land thousands of tons of fish at a time, are still the dominant hunting mode in much of the world.”
There is hope, though, according to the author. Nicholas P. Sullivan writes that “many of the global fish stocks are at a dangerous tipping point, some spiraling toward extinction. But as older fishing fleets retire and new technologies develop, a better, more sustainable way to farm this popular protein has emerged to profoundly shift the balance.”
The Blue Revolution tells the story of the recent transformation of commercial fishing: an encouraging change from maximizing volume through unrestrained wild hunting to maximizing value through controlled harvesting and farming. Entrepreneurs applying newer, smarter technologies are modernizing fisheries in unprecedented ways. In many parts of the world, the seafood on our plates is increasingly the product of smart decisions about ecosystems, waste, efficiency, transparency, and quality.