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.
The vulnerability of a shark population to losing even small numbers to fishing has been highlighted by researchers from the University of Chester and partners in the Philippines using a remote stereo camera system. The team ...
Plants & Animals
May 20, 2026
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11
Eels bred in captivity will be sold in Japanese shops for the first time, in a move that could ease eventually pressure on the endangered fish, officials said Wednesday.
Ecology
May 20, 2026
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23
Most of the Bahamas' signature seafood stocks are being fished harder than the sea can replace them, according to a new paper led by Sea Around Us researchers and published in Frontiers in Marine Science.
Ecology
May 18, 2026
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16
Bottom trawlers extract one-quarter of the world's fisheries catches by weight and raise significant ecological, economic and social concerns. Given that, you'd think there would be an answer to basic questions in fisheries: ...
Ecology
May 13, 2026
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5
Last night, Labor unveiled a budget designed to tackle intergenerational equity in Australia through bold tax reform. It comes at a time when politics is consumed with the international shocks created by US President Donald ...
Environment
May 13, 2026
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7
A research team led by Hainan University, together with, among others, the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), investigated a total of 102 reef sites in the waters ...
Environment
May 12, 2026
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16
A new study led by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution finds that industrial-scale fishing has been removing substantial biomass from the ocean's "twilight zone" for decades, challenging the common assumption ...
Ecology
May 11, 2026
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140
One of the United States' largest fisheries is hiding in plain sight. Recreational freshwater anglers in the lower 48 states catch—and keep—far more fish than any official body has estimated, according to new research from ...
Ecology
May 7, 2026
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41
For decades, coral reefs throughout the Caribbean have been suffering from disease, pollution, overfishing and rising sea temperatures, yet most have continued to grow—until now.
Environment
May 5, 2026
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67
Not many scientific studies sound like a Bond film, but ours really does involve lasers, sharks and doctors (of research, not the evil kind).
Plants & Animals
May 4, 2026
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253
