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.
As ocean temperatures rise due to climate change, corals and other sensitive organisms survive where temperatures are less extreme. But a new study from researchers at Florida Tech, published this month in the journal Communications ...
Environment
Feb 12, 2026
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Human activity has lessened the resilience of modern coral reefs by restricting the food-fueled energy flow that moves through the food chains of these critical ecosystems, reports an international team of researchers in ...
Ecology
Feb 11, 2026
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Fish across Britain's seas face ever-smaller meals as warmer seas and commercial fishing squeeze ocean food webs, new research suggests. Research by the University of Essex and the UK Government's Centre for Environment, ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 3, 2026
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Millions of tires, old washing machines, barges, warships, covering the ocean floor with thousands of square kilometers of concrete—even giant, concrete spheres full of holes: these are all things used to build artificial ...
Ecology
Feb 3, 2026
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A new study from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science shows that juvenile Atlantic nurse sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum) grow more rapidly as juveniles and reach smaller maximum ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 28, 2026
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Floridians were enraged last summer when a viral video showed men offshore Panama City capturing a giant manta ray, a federally threatened species, and hoisting the animal onto their boat.
Plants & Animals
Jan 12, 2026
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In June 2024, the Canadian government lifted the moratorium on northern cod fishing in Newfoundland and Labrador after 32 years. The decision was controversial because cod numbers had not recovered since they collapsed in ...
Ecology
Dec 1, 2025
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19
One of the most comprehensive surveys to date of shark and other large predator fish in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) ocean finds that remote marine protected areas (MPAs)—including the Galapagos, Malpelo, Clipperton, ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 26, 2025
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A new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) published in Coral Reefs reveals why many coral reef fishers remain in poverty, even as fish stocks decline and some fishers leave the profession. The research shows ...
Environment
Nov 24, 2025
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At an eel restaurant near Tokyo, four friends sit down to eat a Japanese delicacy now the subject of a heated international debate as its numbers decline.
Plants & Animals
Nov 21, 2025
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