Overfished Versus Overfishing
Overfished refers to the number of fish in the stock. Typically a stock is described as being overfished when current biomass of a stock is lower than what is required to support the maximum sustainable yield. Overfishing describes the rate of removal from a stock and can be categorized as two different types: recruitment and economic. Recruitment overfishing is when fishing pressure is too heavy to allow a fish population to replace itself. Economic overfishing occurs when the level of fish harvesting that is higher than that of economic efficiency and more fish are harvested than necessary to have maximum profits for the fishery.
Read more about this topic: Stock Assessment