We discuss some applications of the unquenched quark model which is an
extension of the CQM that includes the effects of sea quarks via a $^{3}P_{0}$ quark-antiquark pair-creation mechanism. Particular attention is paid to the electromagnetic couplings and $\beta$
decays of baryons. It is shown that the observed discrepancies between the experimental data and the predictions of the CQM can be accounted for in large part by the effects of sea quarks in the unquenched quark model.