[Bird Jenkins]

“The reasons behind the Easter Island population crash are complex but do stem from the fact that the inhabitants eventually ran out of finite resources, including food and building materials, causing a massive famine and the collapse of their society,” Basener says.

How do you run out of food when your primary source is fish from the ocean? Is it possible a population this small could "over-fish" the area and deplete their resources?

[RightWhale]

Mainly, they ran out of timber.

[pierrem15]

Is it possible a population this small could "over-fish" the area and deplete their resources?

No timber, no boats.

Don't know about you, but I never caught much in the surf.

[muawiyah]

It's possible they ran out of "boats" first. At the same time, it's possible the area underwent a minor change in climate that wiped out the forested areas, and the fish.

Stuff happens!

[Calvin Locke]

Red Tide? Change in the migratory patterns because of predators, storms, quakes, etc?