he responsibility for maintaining healthy stocks of toothfish falls to the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), an international body that is supposed to set catch quotas south of the Antarctic Convergence, a biological boundary where warm northern waters meet cold southern ones. The commission, however, is woefully ineffective. Membership is strictly voluntary, and only 24 of the 56 nations that trade in Patagonian toothfish belong; nonmembers are not bound to follow its rules. Any regulations that the commission proposes must be approved by consensus: If all members can't agree on a quota for an area, then none is set. In 2002, CCAMLR set the toothfish's global catch quota at 18,500 tons -- even though its own experts estimated that at least that much was being caught by unregulated boats, which easily skirt CCAMLR regulations in the vast Antarctic seas. One of the Russian delegates at the negotiating table, attorney Nikita Demin, counts among his clients the Pelagial Joint Stock Company, which has been accused of illegally harvesting toothfish.

The combination of commerce, desire, and weak regulatory oversight has devastated both species of toothfish. Between 1996 and 1997, the average size of a specimen caught around the Prince Edward and Marion islands, which lie between Antarctica and South Africa, dropped from three feet to less than two feet; only 10 percent of the estimated original population remains. Off the Crozet Islands, in the southern Indian Ocean, toothfish numbers declined by 75 percent. Virtually none remain in the Argentinean waters where the boom began just a decade ago, and many fillets sold today have been cut from juveniles that had yet to reach breeding age. Lunkers like the one in Clark's ice hut more than 20 years ago have all but vanished, cooked and eaten by people who were often younger than the fish themselves. "In the Antarctic, once these species crash, they crash," says Clark. Increasingly frustrated by the commission's fecklessness, she began searching for a more effective way to ensure the toothfish's survival.

Clark noted that in 1998, SeaWeb and the Natural Resources Defense Council launched a campaign that eventually forced the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service to seasonally close 133,000 square miles of ocean to swordfish fishing. Give Swordfish a Break prompted U.S. chefs to stop serving North Atlantic swordfish, whose population and size had dropped precipitously. With the help of Andrea Kavanagh of the Washington, D.C.-based National Environmental Trust, Clark decided to do the same for the toothfish, and in February 2002, the two women launched the Take a Pass on Chilean Sea Bass campaign in San Francisco. "The thrust was to get chefs, who use 70 percent of sea bass sold in the United States, to pledge not to serve the species until meaningful regulations were passed," says Kavanagh. Patricia Unterman, the owner and head chef of Hayes Street Grill, took the pledge. Rosedale Fish and Oyster Market in Manhattan, which has served sea delicacies for 97 years, also stopped selling the fish. Manager Dorian Mecir handed out fliers explaining the toothfish's predicament. "Are we losing business? Certainly," she says. "But there are many other fish to eat and sell." To date, more than 1,500 restaurants have dropped Chilean sea bass from their menus.

This May, the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a regulation forcing importers to hand over customs documents detailing the origins of their toothfish catch a full 10 days before a ship's arrival in a U.S. port. The new rule gives agents like Doyle time to investigate where the fish came from. Clark hopes that Antarctic and Patagonian toothfish will receive protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species treaty, which would force all 162 nations to follow strict trade regulations. "These fish went so quickly because people wanted to be on the edge of the next culinary adventure," says Clark. But until fishing for the animal comes under legal controls, she says, those same consumers are the only ones who can make sure the toothfish stays at the bottom of the sea.

YES, YOU CAN MAKE BOUILLABAISSE Seafood is one area where environmentally aware consumers can effectively vote with their pocketbooks -- though not even Jean-Michel Cousteau could be expected to remember which species are overfished, which might be tainted with mercury, and which are healthy and bountiful enough to eat. Luckily, the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program helps you sort out the good and the bad among the world's fisheries. You can download its wallet-sized list from www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp -- or order it by calling (831) 648-4800 -- to help you make the best choices next time you're staring down at a case of iced fillets. ON THE MENU BUY IT? ECONOTES Caviar (farmed white sturgeon) Usually raised on eco-friendly farms Caviar (Black Sea sturgeon) Near extinction; www.caviaremptor.org Swordfish (Atlantic) Overfished, slow recovery rate Halibut (Pacific) Strictly regulated, sustainable fishery Salmon, wild-caught (Calif., Alaska) Strictly regulated, sustainable fishery Tilapia (farmed) Usually raised on eco-friendly farms Rockfish (rock cod/Pacific snapper) Overfished; slow recovery rate Shark (most species) Overfished; methylmercury in flesh