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In 1992, after decades of overfishing and poor fisheries management, the Canadian government acknowledged the catastrophic collapse of the Atlantic cod fishery — once among the most prolific fisheries on Earth — and issued a moratorium on fishing the species. That moratorium put 30,000 Maritimers out of work instantly.

Over three decades later, the fish have not recovered. While there remains a much smaller but still vibrant fishing industry in Atlantic Canada, overwhelmingly based on other species, the people of the Maritimes are building new economies.

This event is but a small taste of the many ecological, economical, human and planetary catastrophes which grow increasingly probable as we continue to manage our atmosphere as poorly as we’ve managed our oceans. As we did with Cod, we are now faced with the possibility that it is already too late to avert calamity, from which the only recovery is to re-invent an economy, this time globally.

See Wikipedia: The Collapse of the Atlantic Northwest Cod Fishery.