For years now the estimates of the consequences of overfishing for marine ecosystems have differed greatly within the scientific community^1^. The use of commercial catch statistics to estimate tendencies has been much criticised^2^, but alternative information sources with long time series are rare. Here we employ the historic archive (1953-2007) of the recreational spearfishery in Galicia (NW Spain), which does not have the problems common to other fishery registers, to estimate long-term changes in coastal ecosystems. Using generalized additive regression models (GAM) we estimated decreases of around 83% in the abundances of coastal fish over the last 50 years. In the same period the average body size decreased by 36%. In addition, the relative catch frequency has decreased for the most valuable commercial species. Commercial overfishing has brought these ecosystems so close to the brink of collapse that it is necessary to implement measures that ensure their recovery
