Overfishing and Catch Limits

Overfishing and Catch Limits Worksheet (Grade 6 Science, TEKS 6.11B)

Can people keep catching fish forever? This one-page sheet tells two real stories. Cod off Canada were fished until they ran out and fishing was banned in 1992. Red snapper in the Gulf near Texas came back after managers cut the catch limit. Students sort facts by story and read a bar graph of real NOAA catch limits.

What's Inside

• A Big Question box: "Can people keep catching fish forever?"
• A short reading on overfishing and three solutions
• Two real case studies: northern cod and Gulf red snapper
• Activity 1: Students sort six facts as cod or red snapper
• Activity 2: Students read a bar graph of real catch limits and circle the best words
• A visual answer key with answers marked in red

How Teachers Use It

Use it as practice for TEKS 6.11B. The sheet takes about 10 to 15 minutes, needs no prior knowledge beyond the 6.11A sheets, and prints clearly in black and white.

This worksheet is part of the Reading in Science series for grade 6. It supports TEKS 6.11B: explain how conservation, increased efficiency, and technology can help manage air, water, soil, and energy resources. It is one of eight connected TEKS 6.11B sheets that build on the 6.11A resource sheets. Every case study uses the same four questions: resource, human activity, impact, and solution. The unit big idea is that human activities can change how quickly resources are used, replaced, or depleted, and conservation, efficiency, and technology can help manage them.

Why It Works

Each sheet opens with a Big Question, teaches the key terms in plain words with simple black-and-white doodles, and then asks students to use only what the page taught. The same four-question chain repeats across the unit, so students build one way of thinking about any resource problem, and the visual answer key lets teachers check work fast.