Overfishing

Overfishing is the removal of fish from a population faster than it can replenish. It depletes stocks and can reduce catches over time.

Fishing mortality: The rate at which fish are removed from a population by fishing. It quantifies the pressure that turns harvest into population decline.
Fishing down the food web: A pattern in which fisheries shift from large, high-trophic-level fish toward smaller species lower in the food web. Depletion of preferred predators can redirect fishing toward less resilient species.
Total allowable catch: A legal limit on the quantity of a stock that may be caught during a specified period. Catch caps directly constrain removals when estimates of stock status are credible.
Atlantic cod collapse: The severe decline of Atlantic cod off Newfoundland and Labrador that led to a major fishery moratorium in 1992. It illustrates how intensive fishing can precede collapse despite warning signs.
Shifting baseline syndrome: The tendency for each generation to accept a degraded environmental condition as the normal baseline. It can make historical abundance loss difficult to recognize or restore.
Recruitment overfishing: Overfishing that reduces a spawning population so much that it cannot produce enough young to replenish itself. It describes depletion severe enough to undermine replacement by new generations.
Trophic cascade: A chain of effects in which changes to predators alter populations at lower levels of a food web. Removing abundant predators can reorganize entire marine communities.
Individual transferable quota: A fisheries-management system allocating catch shares that holders can transfer to others. It is one way to distribute and limit authorized harvest.
Peruvian anchoveta fishery: A major fishery for Peruvian anchoveta, a schooling fish whose abundance is strongly affected by ocean conditions. Its history shows how environmental variability and fishing pressure can combine.
Maximum economic yield: The harvest level that maximizes the economic value of a fishery after accounting for costs. Its target can differ from maximum sustainable yield and prioritize economic returns.

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