Oceans Past: Management Insights from the History of Marine Animal Populations (Earthscan Research Editions)

?[A] fascinating volume, which establishes marine environmental history as a major new discipline for academics as well as an exciting way to bring history and the natural world alive for the public.? ANDREW A. ROSENBERG, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE ?The HMAP project is to be congratulated on this book, which presents vivid, evidence-based reconstructions of historical fisheries and the prolific ecosystems in which they were embedded.? TONY J. PITCHER, UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA ?The ingenuity and scholarship of the authors allow us to see ... how human societies have depended on and influenced marine living resources from periwinkles to whales.? MIKE SINCLAIR, BEDFORD INSTITUTE OF OCEANOGRAPHY ?This book exalts the surprisingly fruitful marriage of historians and marine scientists - a union that has proven to be one of the most exciting developments in ocean research in recent years.? KATHERINE RICHARDSON, UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN For centuries the seas appeared to offer limitless supplies of food and other resources, their waters a cornucopia never to be exhausted. In more recent times, episodes such as the extreme exploitation and subsequent collapse of cod populations of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland have highlighted the fallaciousness of this view. Yet all too often the lessons from our historical interactions with marine animals are little known, let alone learned. Based on research for the History of Marine Animal Populations project, Oceans Past examines the complex relationship our forebears had with the sea and the animals that inhabit it. It presents eleven studies ranging from fisheries and invasive species to offshore technology and the study of marine environmental history, bringing together the perspectives of historians and marine scientists to enhance understanding of ocean management of the past, present and future. In doing so, it also highlights the influence that changes in marine ecosystems have upon the politics, welfare and culture of human societies. Future Knowledge Of Life In Oceans Past / Jesse H. Ausubel -- Oceans Past: History Meets Marine Science / David J. Starkey, Poul Holm And Michaela Barnard -- Invasive Or Native? The Case History Of The Common Periwinkle Snail (littorina Littorea) In Northeast North America / April M.h. Blakeslee -- Social Conflict, Over-fishing And Disease In The Florida Spnge Fishery, 1849-1939 / Loren Mcclenachan -- Quite The Choicest Protein Dish: The Costs Of Consuming Seafood In American Restaurants, 1850-2006 / Glenn A. Jones -- Baiting Our Memories: The Impact Of Offshore Technology Change On Inshore Species Around Cape Cod, 1860-1895 / Matthew G. Mckenzie -- Mapping Historic Fishing Grounds In The Gulf Of Maine And Northwest Atlantic Ocean / Stefan Claesson -- There She Blew! Yankee Sperm Whaling Grounds, 1760-1920 / John L. Bannister, Elizabeth A. Josephson, Randall R. Reeves And Tim D. Smith -- Depletion Within A Decade: The American 19th-century North Pacific Right Whale Fishery / Elizabeth A. Josephson, Tim D. Smith And Randall R. Reeves -- Sperm Whale Catches And Encounter Rates During The 19th And 20th Centuries: An Apparent Paradox / Tim D. Smith, Randall R. Reeves, Elizabeth A. Josephson, Judith N. Lund And Hal Whitehead -- Understanding The Dynamics Of Fisheries And Fish Populations: Historical Approaches Fromthe 19th Century / Julia Lajus -- A Political History Of Maximum Sustained Yield, 1945-1955 / Carmel Finley -- Lost And Found In The Past / Paul E. Waggoner. Edited By David J. Starkey, Poul Holm And Michaela Barnard. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Rarely has humanity's underestimation of the impacts of its activities been so starkly demonstrated as in the marine environment. For centuries the seas appeared to offer limitless supplies of food and other resources, their waters a cornucopia never to be exhausted. In more recent times the extreme exploitation and subsequent collapse of cod populations of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland and tumbling numbers of North Atlantic right whales are well-known examples highlighting the fallaciousness of this view. Yet all too often the lessons from our historical interactions with marine animals are little known, let alone learned. Based on research for the History of Marine Animal Populations project, Oceans Past is an accessible yet detailed examination of the complex relationship our forebears had with the sea and the animals that inhabit it. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, it presents eleven studies ranging from fisheries to invasive species and from offshore technology to the study of marine environmental history itself, bringing together the perspectives of historians and marine scientists to enhance understanding of ocean management past, present and future. In addition to providing essential context to the debate around the impact of human activity on natural resources, the book also highlights the influence that changes in marine ecosystems have upon the politics, welfare and culture of human societies Based on research for the History of Marine Animal Populations project, this title is an examination of the complex relationship our forebears had with the sea and the animals that inhabit it. It presents eleven studies ranging from fisheries to invasive species and from offshore technology to the study of marine environmental history itself.