The world’s fisheries are in crisis. Decades of overfishing have severely depleted stocks in 90 percent of fisheries, and many are now facing collapse. Industrial fishing fleets scour the seas with relentless efficiency to meet ever-growing demand. The crisis has become particularly acute on the African coast where heavily subsidized Chinese ships are crushing the local fishing industry. With each ship scooping up as many fish in a week as Senegalese boats can in a year, a growing Chinese presence is costing West African economies $2 billion a year. At the same time, European ships grossly underreport their catch, exploiting weak enforcement regimes, and American diets help fuel Chinese export demand. A global compact to address the crisis of illegal fishing came into effect last year, but until participation is universal, policy geared toward long-term sustainability, and enforcement stringent, extractive economic power will endanger the vitality of our common ocean resources.