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.
After nearly 25 years of negotiations, the World Trade Organization (WTO) finally has its first legally binding agreement to tackle government fisheries subsidies. After two-thirds of WTO members ratified the Agreement on ...
Ecology
Sep 22, 2025
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A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has uncovered that shark meat sold in U.S. grocery stores, seafood markets, and online vendors often comes from endangered species and is frequently mislabeled. ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 10, 2025
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At a humming factory in the Spanish town of O Carballino, workers sling dozens of limp octopuses into a metal cauldron, wincing as strings of slime splatter their aprons. Nearby, others slice tentacles and pack them into ...
Ecology
Aug 13, 2025
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Sea cucumbers (Apostichopus japonicus) have been slowly disappearing from ocean floors over the last few decades, mostly due to overfishing for food and medicinal purposes. Despite their name, sea cucumbers are aquatic animals ...
Officials have shut down early the remote krill fishery near Antarctica after trawling for the tiny crustacean—a vital food source for whales that also helps fight climate change—exceeded the seasonal catch limit for ...
Ecology
Aug 5, 2025
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Trawling near Antarctica for krill—a crustacean central to the diet of whales and a critical buffer to global warming—has surged to a record and is fast approaching a never before reached seasonal catch limit that would ...
Ecology
Jul 29, 2025
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Marine protected areas cover more than 8% of the world's oceans today, but they can get a bad rap as being protected on paper only.
Ecology
Jul 25, 2025
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A long-term study investigating the growth of corals in the Caribbean over the past century has shown that even stress-tolerant species of corals are finding it difficult to adapt to increasing ocean temperatures and other ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 22, 2025
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The decades-long overexploitation of the marine fisheries resources of most West African countries is one of the top drivers of illegal immigration to Europe via deadly routes through the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and ...
Ecology
Jul 21, 2025
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A study of 7000-year-old exposed coral reef fossils reveals how human fishing has transformed Caribbean reef food webs: as sharks declined by 75% and fish preferred by humans became smaller, prey fish species flourished—doubling ...
Ecology
Jul 1, 2025
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