Overfishing is a topic in fisheries science and marine ecology referring to the exploitation of fish stocks at rates exceeding their capacity to replenish through recruitment and growth, thereby reducing biomass below biologically sustainable thresholds. It is quantitatively assessed using reference points such as maximum sustainable yield (MSY), fishing mortality (F), and spawning stock biomass (SSB), with overfishing indicated when F exceeds target or limit reference points or when SSB falls below critical levels. Overfishing alters age and size structure, disrupts trophic interactions, diminishes genetic diversity, and compromises ecosystem resilience, with management responses involving harvest control rules, catch limits, effort restrictions, and spatial or temporal closures.
Headlines were made this week when scuba divers removing abandoned ghost nets from a shipwreck between Tunisia and Sicily filmed an adult great white shark. The footage quickly made global news, yet the real story is not ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 13, 2026
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In 2020, the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation approached Stanford's Center for Ocean Solutions (COS) to help identify priorities for action on social sustainability issues in seafood supply chains. After years ...
Ecology
Jun 12, 2026
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Farmed oysters are mixing with and potentially adding to populations of wild oysters—a once-abundant species in New York's estuaries and rivers that has declined drastically over the last century. A new study, published in ...
Ecology
Jun 9, 2026
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Oceans are in a "deepening crisis" that demands urgent global action, a major U.N. report warned Monday, with seas warming and rising faster, ice cover shrinking, and marine ecosystems under mounting strain.
Environment
Jun 8, 2026
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New research led by the University of the Sunshine Coast has found that reef manta rays are diving deep in storm events to find food and stay alive. As World Environment Day is celebrated around the globe on June 5, the findings ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 4, 2026
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A multi-year research project has provided new insight into greater amberjack. The Greater Amberjack Count was led by Sean P. Powers, Ph.D., fisheries ecology professor and Director of the Stokes School of Marine and Environmental ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 3, 2026
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Sharks need healthy habitats, and some have a strong preference for locations jam-packed with food, according to FIU research. A recent study of Caribbean reef sharks in the Bahamas, where shark fishing has been banned for ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 2, 2026
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When a team of researchers recorded a low thundering underneath the surface of the Hudson River, they thought they were hearing the muffled rumble of trains. A closer look and listen led to a much more interesting discovery: ...
Plants & Animals
May 27, 2026
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417
Research at the University of Sydney has found that scuba-diving tourism—widely promoted as a sustainable way to experience coral reefs—is causing frequent and often hidden damage to fragile marine ecosystems.
Plants & Animals
May 26, 2026
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587
Spring peepers are singing, and walleye harvesters are ready to go out on Mille Lacs Lake, as they have for hundreds of years. The walleye spawn is on.
Plants & Animals
May 25, 2026
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