The Blue Economy is used to describe all of the economic activities related to the sea with a
special emphasis on sustainability. Traditional activities such as fisheries but also undersea
mining tourism and scientific research are included as well as the phenomenal growth of
aquaculture during the past decade. All of these activities and the irresistible prospect of
another new frontier has led to enthusiastic and most likely overenthusiastic assessments of
the possibilities to exploit the sea to feed the world provide low-cost energy become a new
source of minerals and other future miracles. This book makes sense of these trends and of the
future of the blue economy by following our remote ancestors who gradually discovered the sea
and its resources describing the so-called fisherman's curse - or why fishermen have always
been poor explaining why humans tend to destroy the resources on which we depend and
assessing the realistic expectations for extracting resources from the sea. Although the sea is
not so badly overexploited as the land our demands on ecosystem services are already above the
oceans' sustainability limits. Some new ideas including fishing down for untapped resources
such as plankton could lead to the collapse of the entire marine ecosystem. How Neanderthals
crossed the sea in canoes how it was possible for five men on a small boat to kill a giant
whale what kind of oil the virgins of the Gospel put into their lamps how a professor of
mathematics Vito Volterra discovered the equations of fishing why it has become so easy to
be stung by a jellyfish while swimming in the sea and how to play Moby Dick a simple board
game that simulates the overexploitation of natural resources are just some of the questions
that you will be able to answer after reading this engaging and insightful book about the
rapidly expanding relationship between humanity and the sea.
