overfishing

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of overfish

plural overfishings

1. uncountableusuallyFishing that reduces the stock of remaining fish in an area to below that which is acceptable.

   Most of the overfishings in the international sense are a product of misuse.

   1975, Northwest Mariculture Laws: Papers and Presentations..., page 22

   1 more example

   The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.[…]It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped.

   2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847, archived from the original on 19 Aug 2022