The waters off the coasts have been ridiculously overfished in the centuries since. Fish, clams, scallops, and lobsters were once cheap and plentiful, now they are expensive, on par with beef. Even here in New England, culled lobster meat is currently 5 - 6 times more expensive per pound than fine beef, where it used to be comparative.

Within the last decade+, the cost of a typical seafood dinner party including haddock and a variety of native shellfish has skyrocketed. Clams and Maine lobsters have driven the price out of reach for middle class families to host large gatherings without cost sharing.

Much of that is due to reckless overfishing with massive nets, but also the effects of global warming that has reduced the space of extreme cold necessary for natural hatcheries. Lobsters, especially, require very cold water.

Lobster fishermen have to use special, smallish underwater traps to catch them and must release lobsters below a pound so that more can grow to reproductive aget. Fines are sufficient to discourage anyone from trying to cheat.

OTOH, giant nets on ships drag everything in, where the crew tosses overboard everything below the legal limits, but it is often too late to save juvenile lobsters, crabs, and fish. It is massively efficient, but also massively wasteful and destructive.

At this point, I'm not sure that even stricter legislation and law enforcement can turn this around.

Mankind always manages to be too greedy and careless when it comes to natural resources.