Activists groups and agenda driven media outlets latched on to the November 2006 promotion of the Journal Science report that featured the bold prediction that "all fish and seafood species are projected to collapse... by 2048."
It was heralded as the new science of the day and became more of a mantra than a talking point for interested parties.
Scientists like Ray Hilborn of the University of Washington, whose search for the truth and willingness to collaborate, encouraged Worm to go back to the drawing board and revisit his original work. Hilborn, who eventually became a co-author of the new study, vehemently and vocally opposed the original statistic. Time and again Hilborn and others said the 2048 statistic and the way it was reached, "threatens the very heart of the scientific process," and was "fallacious and inappropriate to appear in a scientific journal," not to mention "just mind boggling stupid."
