The increase in industrial fishing has led to the risk of fish populations not being able to replace themselves. This is what is called overfishing and it has a large impact on the ocean and its inhabitants. Overfishing began in the 1800s when humans greatly decreased the whale population off the coast of Cape Cod while looking for blubber for lamp oil. By the mid-1900s, many fish like the Atlantic cod, herring, and California sardines were caught nearly to the brink of extinction. The mid-20th century brought an increase in countries wanting to fish more to bring more protein to their people. A rapid increase of big industrial fishing operations sprouted. By 1989, the fishing industry was at its peak when 90 million tons of fish were caught and taken from the ocean. A 2003 study shows that industrial fishing has brought the number of large ocean fish to about 10% of their pre-industrial population. Overfishing still occurs to this present day. A 2018 study shows that 62% of fish in the Mediterranean Sea are overfished and at a serious risk of going extinct.

Overfishing affects many species of marine life, most specifically sea turtles and corals. This is because when fish that sea turtles eat and that protect and nourish coral are being taken at an alarming rate, an imbalance in the food chain is created and the food web can become eroded. People who rely on fishing or seafood as a key source of protein are affected because if fishing corporations overfish and take too many then there will be nothing left for small fishermen to take to make money and for people in small villages or towns to get food that they need for survival. The root cause and reason why this issue occurs is because of poor management in fisheries not having rules that keep the marine life and ecosystem balanced. Capitalists promote this poor management of fisheries because they do not care about marine life or those who need the fish more than the fishing companies. All the capitalists care about is the money they make from the fisheries and fishing companies so they do not care how they get a large amount of fish they just want it any way they can get it in order to make more money. Fisheries and fishing companies are the perpetrators of this issue and they are benefitting because they are able to make lots of money off of the fish that they catch and then eventually sell for profit. The chart to the left shows the percentage of fish currently being overfished and how badly.