Overexploitation

Overexploitation is the use or harvesting of a biological population or natural resource faster than it can recover. It can deplete populations, impair ecosystems, and undermine future resource supply.

Maximum sustainable yield: The largest long-term harvest that a population can theoretically sustain under specified conditions. It defines a widely used benchmark for judging whether harvest exceeds recovery.
Collapse of the Atlantic northwest cod fishery: The severe decline of northwest Atlantic cod stocks, followed by a major Canadian fishing moratorium in 1992. It demonstrates how sustained fishing pressure can overwhelm a commercially important fish population.
Catch quota: A regulatory limit on the amount of a fish stock that may be caught during a specified period. Quotas cap extraction, though their effectiveness depends on sound estimates and enforcement.
Sustainable use: Use of biological resources in ways that maintain their capacity to persist and regenerate. It describes resource use that does not exceed the population's ability to recover.
Defaunation: The loss or decline of animal populations and species from ecological communities. Selective harvesting can remove animals and reshape the composition of ecosystems.
Population dynamics: The study of how populations change in size and structure over time. Population growth and mortality determine how much harvesting a population can withstand.
Passenger pigeon: An extinct North American bird once numbering in the billions and driven to extinction by hunting and habitat loss. Its disappearance shows that even enormous populations can be depleted by intense exploitation.
Individual transferable quota: A management system that allocates transferable shares of a fishery's total allowable catch. It is one way to distribute and constrain fishing rights within a harvest limit.
Habitat destruction: The loss or severe alteration of the places where organisms live. It can cause declines independently of harvesting, though both pressures often interact.
Trophic cascade: A sequence of indirect effects across multiple trophic levels caused by changes in one part of a food web. Removing heavily harvested species can alter predators, prey, and ecosystem processes.

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