I think what happened to the cod fishery off North America is really interesting. They overfished the cod then decided to regulate the fishery to let the population come back. But it never recovered - the cod population is stable but at a much lower number. Other 'stuff' (other fish species, jellyfish, etc) had moved into the environmental niche that the cod were in.

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b3lvedere 39 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Example regarding clams: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pearl-buttons-muscatin...

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bpodgursky 39 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

They never actually stopped fishing it though. It's regulated at a level to prevent 100% collapse, there was never political support to let it truly recover by banning fishing for a decade or two.

	▲	msandford 29 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		You don't even have to ban fishing entirely, just reduce the fishing to a point where fish populations increase. It might mean that fishing has to be at half the level it is now which still isn't great for the people impacted but you don't have to go 100% outright ban.