ABSTRACT
We believe that these changes in abundance and size show the effects of overexploitation. The decline in sizes and numbers of land crabs, relative increase in the numbers of land hermit crabs, decline in numbers and sizes of reef carnivores, decline in sizes but increase in numbers of reef herbivores and omnivores, and the decline in sizes of the West Indian topsnail all point to stress in the exploited species. With the decline in capture of crabs came a shift to greater concentration on aquatic resources. This greater concentration on fishing and shell fishing did not come about as the result of increased exploitation of new zones, such as pelagic waters, or the addition of new groups of species, such as birds from coastal rookeries. Instead, most of the same species of fish were caught, and shellfish were gathered, but, either by design (through the size of the fishing equipment) or necessity (because only small individuals were available), smaller individuals were acquired to sustain the apparently growing human populations.
