Did their use to be a lot more fish in the sea?

by somethingicanspell

I remember reading that Cape Cod was called Cape Cod because there was so many cod fish you could reach in with your hand and catch one. There seems to be a lot of other stories like that which suggest the New World and the more remote parts of the ocean where teeming with life. Of course fish numbers have gone down recently due to overfishing but is it really that dramatic of a decrease?

Georgy_K_Zhukov

There is an historical angle here, but you may want to x-post to /r/AskScience as this is something a marine biologist might also have something to say about.