Firstly, I should disclose my own interests: I have worked extensively on the effects of overfishing on ecosystems and have frequently found myself on opposite sides of the debate from the first author of Overfishing – What Everyone Needs to Know, well-known fisheries scientist Ray Hilborn from the University of Washington. In fact, he uses the polarized, and sometimes acrimonious debate of the early 2000s as a lead-in to the book, outlining the controversies and how we resolved some of them through a jointly chaired working group [1,2].