"I assumed as a child that big fish belonged only to exotic, tropical seas. I didn’t see them in the Mediterranean I knew. But years later, in that same sea’s Medes Islands Marine Reserve, I finally saw all the fish I’d never seen before: sea bream, corvina, grouper. I saw all that had been lost to overfishing and pollution and realized that the whole Mediterranean must once have been like this."

Enric Sala Science See all quotes by Enric Sala →

React to this quote

More by Enric Sala

“We are part of the ecosystem, although because we did not evolve as humans, I feel we are like an invasive species. The bottom line is that we take out of the ocean what we like, and throw in what we don’t want.”

“The human footprint is everywhere, and it’s really sad. Plastic is everywhere now, from the shallows to the deepest part of the ocean. And most of the plastic in the oceans we actually cannot see, as it’s in the form of microscopic particles. But there are still a few places that have not been fished, that still show us what the ocean used to be like thousands of years ago, and that can give us hope.”

Resonant Thoughts

"We didn't rally them there. We never went looking for trouble. We only rallied on our own street, but we always won there."

— William Foote Whyte

Sociology1914–2000

#friendship

"Depression is seductive: it offends and teases, frightens you and draws you in, tempting you with its promise of sweet oblivion, then overwhelming you with a nearly sexual power, squirming past your d…"

— Stephen L. Carter

Education1954

#friendship

"There is a popular contention that half or more of the brain is unused. From an evolutionary point of view this would be quite extraordinary: why should it have evolved if it had no function? But actu…"

— Carl Sagan

Science1934–1996

#friendship

"She had done the usual trick – been nice. She would never know him. He would never know her. Human relations were all like that, she thought, and the worst were between men and women. Inevitably these…"

— Virginia Woolf

Literature1882–1941

#knowledge