History of fishing and fisheries

1
History of fishing and fisheries

• Ancient history, many legends
• Artistic representations from the Egyptians

2
History of fishing and fisheries

• Angling defined by Plato
• Then, now you and I have come to an
  understanding, not only about the name off the
  Anglers art, but about the definition of the
  thing itself. One half of all Art was
  acquisitive one half of this again was hunting ,
  and half of hunting was hunting animals of this
  again the under half was fishing, and half of
  fishing was striking a part of striking was
  fishing with a barb, and one half of this again
  (being the kind which strikes with a hook and
  draws the fish from bellow upwards) is the Art we
  have been seeking, and which from the nature of
  the operation is denoted Angling or drawing up

3
History of fishing and fisheries

• So it seems that Plato did no think much of
  fishing or fishers. If that not enough proof
  listen to this
• And now, let us address young men in the form of
  a prayer for their welfare O Friends, may no
  desire of hunting in the sea, or of catching the
  creatures in the waters, ever take possession of
  you, either when you are awake, or when you are
  asleep, by hooks, with wheels, which latter is a
  very lazy contrivance, and let no desire of
  catching men, or piracy by sea, enter into your
  souls.

4
History of fishing and fisheries

• Plato then adds
• Only the best of hunting is allowed at all,
  which is carried on by men with horses, dogs, and
  mens own persons. Fishing is not an occupation
  worthy of a man well born or well brought up,
  because it demands more of address and ruse than
  force, and is not for young people, like hunting,
  the occasion of healthy exercise

5
History of fishing and fisheries

• Another famous Greek philosopher, Aristotle, in
  his book Natural History is the first writer to
  note that fish scales make possible age
  computation
• what the feather is in a bird, the scale is in a
  fish and that the scales of fish become harder
  and thicker and in those which are wasting or
  aging, become still harder so that the old fish
  are distinguishable by the size and the hardness
  of their scales so that in Murex which lives for
  about six years and its annual increase is seen
  in the divisions on the helix of its shell

6
History of fishing and fisheries

• It is a Roman, Martial, who reports the first
  fishing regulation
• Fishing strictly prohibited because the fish
  are sacred to the Emperor Domitian and a previous
  intruder was smitten blind in the very act of
  landing his fish

7
History of fishing and fisheries

• Romans thought that
• fish and wild animals were in a state of nature
  and thus belonged to no one
• fish become property of the person who first
  captures them
• the sea and public rivers were not capable of
  individual ownership
• that no citizen could be prevented from fishing
  in the sea and such rivers by any person.
  Exceptions were a cove of the sea bordering on a
  mans land, or public rivers could be protected
  from fishing

8
History of fishing and fisheries

• Literature on fishing is also, plentiful in the
  East, particularly in China going back to at
  least 1100 BC
• E.g. In 473 BC, Fan Lee (in China) wrote a book
  on carp aquaculture
• Aquaculture now constitutes the fastest-growing
  portion of world fisheries output.

9
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times

• 1200 AD English Common Law
• fish belonged to the Crown,
• they regulated fishing and the highest priority
  on royal uses
• In the New World, regulation was not pressing
• Curiously, Common in American law meant the
  common people

10
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times

• 1600-1800 New World
• 1639 - public allocation in Mass Bay colony after
  declines
• first tax on cod and striped bass to support
  school system
• 1670s - restrictions on early season mackerel
  fishing
• 1684 - seines prohibited in Plymouth

11
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times

• Western US
• Salmon and halibut fished by natives
• No regulatory allocations practices were tribal
  customs and beliefs
• Civil War era
• Recreational fishers pressure for limits
• MA had 4000 people in cod/whale fisheries (more
  than in 1980!)

12
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times

• Early 1900s
• Steam power, otter trawl
• Improved efficiency
• Later diesel engines, hydraulic power blocks,
  on-board refrigeration
• Stocks begin to decline (inshore bass, salmon,
  shad)

13
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times

• Early 1900s
• Commissions formed
• ICES International Council for the Exploration
  of the Sea
• Pacific halibut Commission
• International Whaling Commission
• International salmon fisheries Commission

14
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times

• 1871
• US Congress establishes the Office of the
  Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries
• 1903
• Office of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries
  becomes Bureau of Fisheries (Dept. Commerce)
• 1939
• Bureau of Fisheries combined with Bureau of
  Biological Survey to become Fish Wildlife
  Service (Dept. Interior)

15
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times

• Conflict between commercial and recreational
  interests leads to creation of (US FWS)
• Bureau of Commercial Fisheries
• Bureau of Sport Fisheries Wildlife
• 1970marine fisheries management transferred to
• NMFS National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA,
  Dept of Commerce)

16
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times

• Early 1900s
• Regulation of commercial fishing necessary
  globally
• Inland, freshwater stocks already regulated by
  States
• Regulation of coastal stocks not as easy
  interstate and international agreements necessary

17
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times

• WW2
• Many stocks rebound, but effect does not last
  long
• 1949
• ICNAF
• 1950
• IATTC
• 1953
• INPC

18
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times

• 1950s
• Factory ships very large hauls
• Expansion of foreign fleets
• Spaniards 4.5 of total tonnage of foreign
  vessels, but 28 of cod catch
• Many collapses eventually occur

19
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times

• Perus anchoveta fishery
• Fish meal in early 1950s
• Stimulated by collapse of California sardine
• mid1960s-largest fishery in the world
• 1972-73 El Niño event
• Inshore concentration
• Poor juvenile survival
• Recruitment failure
• 1970s
• Reductions in catch needed, but
• Govt. unwilling/unable to react
• Economically unimportant

20
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times
21
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times

• Atlantic herring in North Sea
• 1903-65s 300,000 - 1MMT
• 1960s Decline

22
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times

• Atlantic herring in North Sea
• Scientists dont detect overexploitation
• Huge delays in enforcing regulations
• 2 major problems of stock assessment
• Cannot usually detect overfishing until it is
  severe
• Difficult to effectively reduce fishing pressure
  (social, economic)

23
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times

• Collapses lead to
• Declaration of 200 mile fishing rights
• 1950-70, in US foreign fleets outcompete domestic
  fisheries
• ICNAF imposes mesh-size regulation, but leads to
  increased effort

24
History of fishing and fisheriesmodern times

• 1976
• Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act
  (MFCMA)
• Restrict foreign fishing and revitalize domestic
  fishing
• Stocks improve temporarily, but huge increase in
  domestic effort
• 1996
• Re-authorizationof the Magnuson (-Stevens)
  Fishery Conservation and Management Act