Historical Overfishing and the Recent Collapse of Coastal Ecosystems

Abstract

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. Paleoecological, 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 unfished species of similar trophic level assumed the ecological roles of overfished species until they too were overfished 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.

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Affiliated Institutions

• University of Maine US
• State Street (United States) US
• University of Chicago US
• University of California, Santa Cruz US
• Sea Turtle Conservancy US
• Scripps Institution of Oceanography US
• University of California, San Diego US
• University of Florida US
• United States Geological Survey US
• National Museum of Natural History US
• Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute PA
• Bates College US
• Australian National University AU
• University of California, Santa Barbara US
• National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis US
• University of California, Davis US
• James Cook University AU
• Smithsonian Institution US
• University of Oregon US
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill US

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