In this episode of the podcast I discuss the state of marine fisheries with Professor Trevor Branch from the University of Washington. Trevor specializes in data synthesis, and constructing mathematical models to determine the health of fish populations. Often in the media one sees stories of collapsing fish populations and dire predictions of species extinction and a future with empty seas. The goal of this episode was to find out what the science says about the actual current status of our oceans, and to learn about the work that is being done to ensure that future generations continue to enjoy the abundance and diversity of the sea. What emerges is a nuanced picture of ocean protection that involves tradeoffs between the protection of different land and ocean ecosystems, political motives, and economics. This conversation was supported by the Andrea von Braun foundation (http://www.avbstiftung.de/), as an exploration of the rich, exciting, connected, scientifically literate, and (most importantly) sustainable future of humanity. In this episode I am particularly interested in exploring the sustainable extraction of natural resources from our planet, and what that means when weighing up the tradeoffs of obtaining protein from the oceans as opposed to factory farming on land.