Collapse of the Atlantic northwest cod fishery

Once upon a time, there were a lot of fish in the ocean in a place called the Atlantic northwest. One kind of fish that lived there was called a cod. People liked to catch and eat this fish, so they did a lot of fishing there for a really long time.

However, the people who caught the cod fish didn't realize that they were taking too many fish out of the ocean. They didn't think it would be a problem, because there were so many fish to begin with.

But because the fish were being caught faster than they could reproduce, there weren't enough fish left to keep the population healthy. So, the cod fish started to die off, and fewer and fewer fish were being caught.

This made it hard for people who relied on the fishery for their jobs and for food. Over time, the cod fish population collapsed, or disappeared almost completely. This made people really sad, and it taught them that they need to take care of the ocean and not take too many fish out of it.