Historical Overfishing and the Recent Collapse of Coastal Ecosystems

@article{Jackson2001HistoricalOA,
  title={Historical Overfishing and the Recent Collapse of Coastal Ecosystems},
  author={Jeremy B. C. Jackson and Michael Xavier Kirby and Wolfgang H. Berger and Karen A. Bjorndal and Louis W. Botsford and Bruce J. Bourque and Roger Bradbury and Richard G. Cooke and Jon M. Erlandson and James A. Estes and Terry P. Hughes and Susan M. Kidwell and Carina B. Lange and Hunter S Lenihan and John M. Pandolfi and CHARLES H. Peterson and Robert S. Steneck and Mia J. Tegner and Robert R. Warner},
  journal={Science},
  year={2001},
  volume={293},
  pages={629 - 637}
}
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… 
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