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Fish populations are perfectly capable of regulating the size of their own population.  Usually, such density dependent processes happen only on a local scale and are "much influenced by spatial heterogeneity of the population and environmental factors." Density dependent regulation generally includes predation/canabalism, infection, competition, and changed reproductive processes.  Younger (baby) fish are the most affected by competition. Temperature also affects regulation (see Temperature's Effect on Younger Fish). Regulation for adult fish is affected by changes in growth rate, and changes of age at first maturity. When the adult population decreases (not due to overfishing), the growth rate increases and the fish reach maturity at a younger age.  Since fecundity is proportional to weight, the changes compensate for the loss in the number of eggs that could have been.

Wiki Markup Dahlem Workshop on Exploitation of Marine Communities (1984 :    Exploitation of marine communities : report of the Dahlem Workshop on Exploitation of Marine Communities, Berlin, April 1-6, 1984 / editor, R.M. May ; rapporteurs, J.R. Beddington ... \[et al.\].    Berlin ;   New York :   Springer-Verlag,    Dahlem Workshop on Exploitation of Marine Communities (1984 :    Exploitation of marine communities : report of the Dahlem Workshop on Exploitation of Marine Communities, Berlin, April 1-6, 1984 / editor, R.M. May ; rapporteurs, J.R. Beddington ... [et al.].    Berlin ;   New York :   Springer-Verlag,   1984.