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One Way To Help The World's Overfishing Problem: Buy American

Compared to much of the world, the U.S. has tried to tackle the problem head-on.

One Way To Help The World's Overfishing Problem: Buy American
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If you don't want the world to run out of seafood, you might want to buy American.

The World Wildlife Fund estimates 85 percent of the world's fisheries are unsustainable, but U.S. fisheries have tried to tackle the problem head-on.

Compared to other animals, getting marine populations up is usually relatively easy, as long as you enforce quotas.

To keep certain species sustainable, scientists have long recommended caps for fishermen, but enforcing those quotas has been a different story.

SEE MORE: Fishing Illegally? Google's All-Seeing Eye Is Watching You

The U.S. has been one of the most successful countries when it comes to sustainable fishing.

Last year, the country saw an all-time low in overfished stocks.

In fact, 39 fish stocks have been rebuilt in the U.S. since 2000.

But here's the problem: The U.S. still imports about 90 percent of the seafood it eats.

While American fishermen have gotten much better at sustainable fishing, what they do or don't do to their catches might be part of the problem.

Experts told Quartz that ironically, consumers can often get fresher fish flown in from around the world because those fisherman use techniques that keep their catches fresher longer.

If current worldwide overfishing trends continue, WWF says all fish stocks used for food will collapse by the year 2048.