In fisheries, the probability of a stock collapsing varies strongly from region to region but the mechanism is unknown. We'd like to use the naturally occurring variation among regions as recorded in publicly available data (e.g. the Ram-Myers fisheries stock database, remotely sensed oceanographic variables, continuous plankton records) to assess the relative importance of abiotic variables, food web interactions, and economic pressures in determining the "baseline" abundance for collapsed fisheries and marine mammal populations.