Reference Terms

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Overfishing

Overfishing is a situation where one or more fish stocks are reduced below predefined levels of acceptance by fishing activities.

More precise definitions are provided in biology and bioeconomics.

Biological overfishing occurs when fishing mortality has reached a level where the stock biomass has negative marginal growth (slowing down biomass growth).

Ultimately overfishing may lead to depletion in cases of subsidised fishing, low biological growth rates and critical low biomass levels.

The ability for nature to restore the fisheries is also dependent on whether the ecosystems are still in a state to allow fish numbers to build again.

Dramatic changes in species composition may establish other equilibrium energy flows which involve other species compositions than before (ecosystem shift).

Note: The above text is excerpted from the Wikipedia article "Overfishing", which has been released under the GNU Free Documentation License.

For more information, see the following related content on ScienceDaily:

Swordfish, Three Other Stocks Rebuilt to Healthy Levels, NOAA Reports

May 17, 2010 — Four fisheries stocks, including Atlantic swordfish, have now been rebuilt to healthy levels, according to a new ... read more

EU Ban on Ditching Unwanted Fish 'Will Be Difficult for Industry to Comply With'

Mar. 18, 2015 — The fishing industry will have difficulty complying with new EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) rules banning the throwing away of unwanted fish, according to ... read more

US Fishing Generated More Than $200 Billion in Sales in 2015; Two Stocks Rebuilt in 2016

May 9, 2017 — US commercial and recreational fishing generated $208 billion in sales, contributed $97 billion to the gross domestic product, and supported 1.6 million full- and part-time jobs in 2015 -- above the ... read more

Global Fisheries Research Finds Promise and Peril: While Industry Contributes $240B Annually, Overfishing Takes Toll on People and Revenue

Sep. 14, 2010 — Global fisheries, a vital source of food and revenue throughout the world, contribute between $225-$240 billion per year to the worldwide economy, according to four new studies. Researchers also ... read more

Slipped Through the Net: Europe Misses by More Than 30 Years the International Goal of Rebuilding Its Fish Stocks

Jan. 21, 2010 — At the Development Summit in Johannesburg in 2002, the European countries agreed to rebuild their fish stocks to levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield, no later than 2015. According ... read more

Are Our Fisheries Laws Working? Just Ask About Gag Grouper

Apr. 23, 2015 — "Gag grouper? That's our money fish," said a charter boat captain out of Clearwater, Florida, on the state's western shore. "That's what brings customers to the ... read more

Turning A Blind Eye To Bigeye Tuna

Dec. 3, 2007 — Bigeye tuna are under threat because authorities are failing to recognize the dire extent of overfishing. If protection measures are not put in place, says WWF and TRAFFIC, the tuna stocks are at ... read more

Boom in Jellyfish: Overfishing Called Into Question

May 3, 2013 — Will we soon be forced to eat jellyfish? Since the beginning of the 2000s, these gelatinous creatures have invaded many of the world's seas, like the Japan Sea, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean ... read more

Projects for Sustainable Fishing Not Effective Enough

May 13, 2015 — Projects that stimulate sustainable fishing in developing countries often get no further than good intentions. Thus, some of the imported fish sold in European and North American shops may be less ... read more

Overfishing And Evolution: Fish Fear Their Census-Takers

July 21, 2009 — Using snorkelers and SCUBA divers is not the best way to monitor fish populations, if we want to know the evolutionary effects of overfishing. The fish population in coral reef areas is often ... read more

Plants & Animals News

May 25, 2017

Two-Headed Worms Coded for Regeneration

Building Circuits in Living Cells

Cowbirds Choosy When Selecting Foster Parents

Tree-Climbing Goats Disperse Seeds by Spitting

Latest Headlines

updated 12:56 pm ET

Size-Sensing Protein Controls Glucose Uptake and Storage in Fat Cells

May 25, 2017 — Researchers have discovered that a molecule which can sense the swelling of fat cells also controls a signaling pathway that allows fat cells to take up and store excess glucose. Mice missing this ... read more

LA Lawns Lose Lots of Water: 70B Gallons a Year

May 24, 2017 — In summer 2010, Los Angeles was losing about 100 gallons of water per person per day to the atmosphere through the evaporation and plant uptake of lawns and trees. Lawns accounted for 70 percent of ... read more

Are Wolverines in the Arctic in the Climate Change Crosshairs?

May 24, 2017 — Will reductions in Arctic snow cover make tundra-dwelling wolverines more vulnerable to climate change than previously thought? That's a question scientists hope an ... read more

Simple Copper Complex Shuts Down Botulinum Neurotoxin Poisoning

May 24, 2017 — Clostridium botulinum is the bacterium that causes the neurointoxication, which produces one of the most potent toxins on earth and is classified as a potential bioterrorism ... read more

How Ebola Disables People's Immune Defenses

May 24, 2017 — Scientists have unlocked mysteries of how the Ebola virus hampers the body's natural defenses to speed the rate of infection and its accompanying lethal disease, according to a new ... read more

Secret Weapon of Smart Bacteria Tracked to 'Sweet Tooth'

May 24, 2017 — Researchers have figured out how a once-defeated bacterium has re-emerged to infect cotton in a battle that could sour much of the Texas and US crop. And it boils down to ... read more

How Polyomavirus Tricks Our Cells Into Helping It Build Its Invasion Route

May 24, 2017 — If every cell in our body is a factory, viruses are industrial spies who try to break in and take over. New findings about how one of the most mysterious types of spy - polyomaviruses -- accomplishes ... read more

Spinach Genome Will Make More Than Popeye Stronger

May 24, 2017 — Researchers report a new draft genome of Spinacia oleracea, better known as spinach. Additionally, the authors have sequenced the transcriptomes (all the RNA) of 120 cultivated and wild spinach ... read more

Biosynthetic Secrets: How Fungi Make Bioactive Compounds

May 23, 2017 — Biological engineers have successfully decoded and reprogrammed the biosynthetic machinery that produces a variety of natural compounds found ... read more

First Deep-Sea Mussel Genome Decoded

May 23, 2017 — Scientists have assembled the 1.64 gigabytes genome of a deep-sea mussel, which is roughly equivalent to 50 percent of the size of human genome. This is the first decoded ... read more