Which of the following is identified as a primary cause of the East Coast fishery collapse?

• A. Improved fishing technology
• B. Overfishing
• C. Uncontrolled foreign fishing
• D. Destructive fishing practices

Answer: (B)

The main idea is that a fishery collapses when harvests exceed what the fish population can replace. In the East Coast cod story, overfishing is the key driver because removing fish faster than they can reproduce drives the stock down to unsustainable levels, making recovery impossible without drastic cuts.

Improved fishing technology made it easier to catch more fish, so it amplified the impact of the overfishing, but it isn’t the root cause by itself. Uncontrolled foreign fishing contributed additional pressure, yet the primary factor identified in the collapse is the high level of fishing pressure from the fleets that exhausted the stock. Destructive fishing practices can harm habitats, but they aren’t the central reason for the cod collapse in this context.