Fishing line and hooks

Excavation of landfill locations shows that oil age peoples typically wasted nearly one-third of the food they produced - regardless of its rarity, the oil expended in its production or how far it had travelled. Fish were at that time a major dietary constituent. Along with nets, these late 20c hooks on lines were initially the main means of harvesting. As fishing methods became more sophisticated and large-scale, and before the establishment of the large marine reserves we have today, fish stocks were hugely diminished, resulting in the extinction of many species. By the close of the oil age, jellyfish, which thrived in the absence of predators, were the only significant seafood component in most people’s diets.