Jackson et al., 2001:

"Ecological extinction caused by overfishing precedes all other pervasive human disturbance to coastal ecosystems, including pollution, degradation of water quality, and anthropogenic climate change. Historical abundances of large consumer species were fantastically large in comparison with recent observations. Palaeoecological, archaeological, and historical data show that time lags of decades to centuries occurred between the onset of overfishing and consequent changes in ecological communities, because unfinished species of similar trophic level assumed the ecological roles of over fished species until they too were over fished or died of epidemic diseases related to overcrowding. Retrospective data not only help to clarify underlying causes and rates of ecological change, but they also demonstrate achievable goals for restoration and management of coastal ecosystems that could not even be contemplated based on the limited perspective of recent observations alone."

AND

"Expeditions occurred annually to northern Australia from the Malay Archipelago throughout the 18th and 19th centuries to harvest an estimated 6 million sea cucumbers each season (54). After European colonization, industrial-scale fishing developed along the Great Barrier Reef and subtropical east Australian coast in the early to mid–19th century (55). Whales, dugongs, turtles, pearl oysters, and Trochus shell were each heavily exploited only to rapidly collapse, and all have failed to regain more than a small fraction of their former abundance (55–57). Fishing of pelagic and reef fishes, sharks, and prawns has continued to the present, although catch per unit effort has declined greatly (58)."

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Citation and/or URL

Jackson, J.B.C., Kirby, M.X., Berger, W.H., Bjorndal, K.A., Botsford, L.W., Bourque, B.J., Bradbury, R.H., Cooke, R., Erlandson, J., Estes, J.A., Hughes, T.P., Kidwell, S., Lange, C.B., Lenihan, H.S., Pandolfi, J.M., Peterson, C.H., Steneck, R.S., Tegner, M.J. & Warner, R.R. 2001, Historical overfishing and the recent collapse of coastal ecosystems. Science, 293: (5530) 629-637 

Spatial Coverage

Global 

Temporal Coverage

Historical review

Update Frequency

Not applicable 

Other Information

None