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RE: Nonsense
I'm not entirely certain that the "we keep the big fish" theory is accurate. Sport fishing is not the threat that will wipe out entire species of fish. Commercial fishing is the culprit, and honestly, they don't throw anything back unless its the wrong kind of fish (remember the dolphin fiasco of the early 90s.) A sardine boat isn't going to throw back the small sardines because they don't fit the trophy limits. Incidentally, sport fishing limits are often "windows," i.e. a minimum size and a maximum size, mandating the release of the largest and smartest fish, even if they do happen to bite on my tasty fly. Pollution and mega-scale net fishing operations' indiscriminate kiling or harvesting is the threat.
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RE: Nonsense
I listened to a few podcasts about this over the years, and the real danger does not seem to be extinction or the depletion of plankton and such, but that we are permanently damaging these fisheries and their potential as future food sources.
Which fish to we catch and keep? The big ones. What does that do from an evolutionary standpoint? It selects for smaller fish, and that's exactly what's happening. We are altering the gene pool on fish, making them smaller and less viable all the time.
A seperate issue is coral bleaching (caused by rising ocean acidification from CO2 absorbtion) and by sugars in sewage runoff. There is also general pollution damaging the algae in the ocean, which is the primary driver for atmospheric oxygen generation, but again, that's a seperate topic.
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