overharvesting: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	overexploitation

Photos

A bigeye thresher shark (Alopias superciliosus) with its mouth open is hooked on a fishing longline, partially out of the water next to a boat in the ocean.

Side-by-side illustration comparing an ecosystem before and after the removal of top carnivores. The left panel shows a balanced landscape with wolves, bears, foxes, diverse birds, and a variety of plants, while the right panel shows an ecosystem dominated by large herbivores like elk and deer, fewer predators, reduced plant variety, and less songbird diversity.

African elephant (Loxodonta africana) standing on grassy plain with distant trees and hills in Amboseli National Park, Kenya.

World map highlighting Earth's terrestrial biodiversity hot spots in red, showing regions with exceptionally high levels of species richness and endemism. These hot spots are distributed across parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, Mediterranean basin, Africa, Madagascar, South and Southeast Asia, and islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as select areas in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

A river flows beside a barren area scattered with tree stumps, showing deforestation or drought effects; a dense forest stands in the background.

Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) swimming underwater, showing its speckled brown body, white lateral line, and barbel under the chin.

Diagram illustrating the main drivers of biodiversity loss, with arrows pointing from habitat loss, invasive species, overexploitation, pollution, and climate change toward a section labeled biodiversity loss, alongside influencers such as human population growth and increased consumption.

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Topics

overfishing poaching Today in History—July 2: The Canadian Cod Fishery Collapse endangered species natural resource ecosystem services common-pool resource water resource

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