Overfishing Infographic

Overfishing occurs when more fish are caught than the population can replace through natural reproduction, according to the World Wildlife Fund. In this case, the breeding population becomes too depleted to recover. The Environmental Defense Fund also defined overfishing as the wasteful type of commercial fishing—where a big sweep hauls in massive amounts of unwanted fish and sea life, as well as their ecosystems (algae, seaweed, and the like), takes the breed of fish they want, and the rest of the haul is then discarded