Overexploitation

Overexploitation is the over-harvesting of species from the wild. Approximately 1/3 of the world’s endangered species are threatened by overexploitation.

Overfishing: More than 85% of fisheries have been depleted because the fish are being captured at a rate at which they can not reproductively keep up with. Overfishing is the greatest threat to aquatic ecosystems.

Fact: 5/8 of tuna species are at risk for extinction

The Mekong salmon carp’s population has been decreased by 90%

The Tragedy of the Commons: too many individuals in a population tries to reap the greatest benefit they can from a given resource, which overwhelms the supply and the resource ends up being unusable to some of the population