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From 1950 to 2006 the United Nation Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) estimated that 12,700 metric tons of fish were caught in the Arctic, giving the impression that the Arctic was a still-pristine ecosystem, remaining underexploited by the world's fisheries. However, a recent study by the University of British Colombia Fisheries Center and Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences throws cold water on this widespread belief. According to the study, published in Polar Biology, the total Arctic catch from 1950 to 2006 is likely to have been nearly a million metric tons, almost 75 times the FAO's official record.

Science and experience have supported this fact for the last 20 years in the Coral Triangle countries of Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, where various forms of MPA are being implemented to protect coral reef habitats, manage local reef-associated fisheries and generate income for local residents through improved fishing and diving tourism enterprises.

Community supported fisheries are springing up along the East Coast, taking a nod from local agriculture. But what do you do when your fisherman catches too much cod?

"Whalers cited "violent interference" and other clashes lasting 31 days with Sea Shepherd as "paralyzing" the hunt. Takashi Mori of Japan's Fisheries Ministry added, "The lack of samples could affect the accuracy of our research." According to Sea Shepherd calculations, their efforts cost Japan's whaling fleeting about $132 million, as the average value of each whale is a quarter of a million dollars. The same estimates show that this season the fleet lost money, as 700 whales need to be killed to meet operating expenses."

The steady loss of forests, soils, wetlands, fisheries, species and coral reefs around the world is closely tied to the lack of value we put on nature, says three-year study.

"In a place like Indonesia, top-down government control simply isn't possible, and community-based management is the only real alternative."

"Take, for example, the Caribbean nation of Belize. A recent analysis by several of my colleagues concluded that the country's coral reefs contribute the equivalent to 10 to 15 per cent of the nation's GDP, primarily through tourism and fisheries. Likewise, the avoided damage to buildings and infrastructure that reefs provide by serving as a "speed bump" for tropical storms equates to the same GDP percentage."

"Research has shown that marine protected areas (MPAs)-areas where fishing and other potentially destructive activities are regulated-are benefitting, not just the fish habitats they are known to aid, but nearby coral reefs as well. "That is, while coral cover initially continued to decrease in the MPA's first few years, decline slowed and then eventually stabilized after several years of MPA establishment."