XIX / Roger Revelle Commemorative LecturE Presented by The Ocean Studies Board

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

DistressHistorical Waypoints Signals in Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Since 1850

A lecture on Northwest Atlantic fisheries by historian Dr. W. Jeffrey BOLSTER The National Academy of Sciences he National Academy of Sciences was estab- lished in 1863 by an Act of Congress, signed by Presi- Tdent Lincoln, as a private, nongovernmental institution to advise the nation on issues related to science and tech- nology. Members are elected by their peers for outstanding contributions to research. Dr. Marcia K. McNutt is president.

The National Academy of Engineering was estab- tinguished contributions to medicine and health. Dr. lished in 1964 under the charter of the National Victor J. Dzau is president. Academy of Sciences to bring the practices of engi- The three Academies work together as the Nation- neering to advising the nation. Members are elected al Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine by their peers for extraordinary contributions to en- to provide independent, objective analysis and advice gineering. Dr. C. D. Mote, Jr., is president. to the nation and conduct other activities to solve The National Academy of Medicine (formerly complex problems and inform public policy deci- the Institute of Medicine) was established in 1970 sions. The National Academies also encourage educa- under the charter of the National Academy of Sci- tion and research, recognize outstanding contributions ences to advise the nation on medical and health to knowledge, and increase public understanding issues. Members are elected by their peers for dis- in matters of science, engineering, and medicine.

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2 3 on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, and many pacts. However, fisheries managers often set base- committees. He also chaired a number of influen- lines for rebuilding to a time when fish stocks may Dear Lecture Participant: tial Academy studies on subjects ranging from the already have been depleted. In his lecture this eve- environmental effects of radiation to understanding ning, Dr. Jeffrey Bolster, professor of history at the On behalf of the Ocean Studies Board at the National Acad- sea-level change. University of New Hampshire, uncovers the deep roots of the depletion of our coastal ecosystems. emies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, we would like SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL MUSEUM Reconstructing the catch histories of commercial OF NATURAL HISTORY fisheries in the northwest Atlantic in the 19th cen- to welcome you to the Nineteenth Annual Roger Revelle Com- The Ocean Studies Board is pleased to have the tury, Dr. Bolster concludes that we may be pro- memorative Lecture. This lecture was created by the Ocean opportunity to present the Revelle Lecture in co- foundly underestimating the capacity of the ocean operation with the Smithsonian National Museum to produce fish. Studies Board in honor of Dr. Roger Revelle to highlight the of Natural History through our partnership with the Smithsonian Science Education Center. The SPONSORSHIP important links between the ocean sciences and public policy. museum maintains and preserves the world’s most The Ocean Studies Board thanks the National Oce- extensive collection of natural history specimens anic and Atmospheric Administration, the National ROGER REVELLE Keeling, resulting in a long-term record and human artifacts and supports scientific re- Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and For almost half a century, Roger Revelle that has been essential to current research search, educational programs, and exhibitions. The Space Administration, the Office of Naval Re- was a leader in the field of . on global . With Hans museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution, the search, and the U.S. Geological Survey. This lecture Revelle trained as a geologist at Pomona Suess, he published the seminal paper world’s largest museum and research complex. Dr. series would not be possible without their generous College and the , demonstrating the connection between in- Kirk R. Johnson is the director. support. Berkeley. In 1936, he received his Ph.D. in ocean- creasing atmospheric and burning The Smithsonian Science Education Center ography from the University of California, Berke- of fossil fuels. Revelle kept the issue of increas- (SSEC) was founded in 1985 by the National Acad- We hope you enjoy tonight’s event. ley. As a young naval officer, he helped persuade ing carbon dioxide levels before the public and emy of Sciences and the Smithsonian Institution and the Navy to create the Office of Naval Research spearheaded efforts to investigate the mechanisms continues today as a successful unit of the Smithso- (ONR) to support basic research in oceanogra- and consequences of climate change. Revelle left nian Institution. The mission of the SSEC is to de- phy and was the first head of ONR’s geophysics Scripps for critical posts as Science Advisor to the velop STEM literate students from early childhood branch. Revelle served for 12 years as the Direc- Department of the Interior (1961–1963) and as the through the workplace. The SSEC does this through tor of Scripps (1950–1961, 1963–1964), where he first Director of the Center for Population Studies at the implementation of a truly systemic approach that built up a fleet of research ships and initiated a Harvard (1964–1976). Revelle applied his knowl- engages participants at every level, from students and decade of expeditions to the deep Pacific that chal- edge of geophysics, ocean resources, and popula- classroom teachers up through the highest levels of lenged existing geological theory. tion dynamics to the world’s most vexing prob- district, state, national and international leadership. Larry Mayer, Chair, Ocean Studies Board Revelle’s early work on the carbon cycle sug- lems: poverty, malnutrition, security, and education. gested that the sea could not absorb all the carbon In 1957, Revelle became a member of the Na- TONIGHT’S LECTURE dioxide released from burning fossil fuels. He or- tional Academy of Sciences to which he devoted Many fish stocks have been reduced to a fraction of ganized the first continual measurement of atmo- many hours of volunteer service. He served as a their former abundance, the result of overfishing, Susan Roberts, spheric carbon dioxide, an effort led by Charles member of the Ocean Studies Board, the Board habitat destruction, pollution, and other human im- Director, Ocean Studies Board

2018 OCEAN STUDIES BOARD MEMBERS Larry A. Mayer, Chair, University of New Hampshire, Durham | E. Virginia Arm- Oceanography, , California | H. Tuba Özkan-Haller, Oregon State University, Corvallis | Ruth M. Perry, Shell Exploration brust, University of , | Kevin R. Arrigo, Stanford University, California | Claudia Benitez-Nelson, University & Production Company, Houston, Texas | Martin D. Smith, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina | Mark J. Spalding, The of South Carolina, Columbia | Thomas S. Chance, ASV Global, LLC, Broussard, Louisiana | Rita R. Colwell, University of Mary- Ocean Foundation, Washington, District of Columbia | Margaret Spring, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, California | Douglas land, College Park | Sarah W. Cooksey, Delaware Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, Milton | James A. Estes, University of Wartzok, Florida International University, Miami | Lisa D. White, University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State California, Santa Cruz | David Halpern, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California | Patrick Heimbach, University of Texas, University | Robert S. Winokur, Michigan Tech Research Institute, Silver Spring, Maryland | OSB Staff Members Susan Roberts, Austin | Susan E. Humphris, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts | S. Bradley Moran, University Director | Stacee Karras, Program Officer | Emily Twigg, Associate Program Officer | Pamela Lewis, Administrative Coordinator of Alaska, Fairbanks | Steven A. Murawski, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg | John A. Orcutt, Scripps Institution of | Trent Cummings, Program Assistant | Shubha Banskota, Financial Associate | James Heiss, Post-Doctoral Fellow

4 5 Professor of History at the Univer- sity of New Hampshire, Jeff Bolster helped create the emerging field of marine environ- mental history. For ten years, he co-direct- ed the UNH Cod Project, part of the Census Aof Marine Life’s historical arm. Bolster’s interdisciplinary group of ecologists and historians pioneered new methods to reconstruct the abundance and distribution of historic fish stocks in the northwest Atlantic. He continues to advocate for the importance of historical evidence in investigating scientific questions about long-term environmental change.

Dr. W. Jeffrey BOLSTER

Bolster went to sea for ten years as a young man, Bancroft Prize, generally regarded as one of the most sailing as mate and master on a variety of sailing prestigious awards in American History. A reviewer school-ships, including the Sea Education Associa- in The Washington Post said, “Anyone who thinks tion’s R/V Westward. Licensed by the U.S. Coast … this book is only about fish is living in a fool’s Guard as Master of Motor, Steam, and Auxiliary Sail paradise.” Vessels upon All Oceans, he still regularly sails small Bolster has held fellowships from the Smithson- vessels deep-sea, and remains intimately familiar ian Institution, Mystic Seaport, and the National En- with the ocean and the fisheries of New England, dowment for the Humanities, and he served one year Atlantic Canada, and the eastern Caribbean. as the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American He is author, co-author, or editor of five books, Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. His many papers, and contributions to the New York work has been supported by grants from the Alfred Times, the Boston Globe, and other publications. P. Sloan Foundation, the National Science Founda- Bolster’s first book, Black Jacks: African American tion, New Hampshire Sea Grant, and NOAA’s Ma- Seamen in the Age of Sail won several academic rine Sanctuary Program. prizes, and the New York Times Book Review listed Educated at Trinity College (BA, History), it as a “notable book of the year.” His most recent Brown University (MA, History), and the Johns book, The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Hopkins University (PhD, History), Bolster lives in

Photo by Michael Sterling Age of Sail, won numerous awards, including the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, an old town by the sea.

6 7 y inviting a historian to deliver the 2018 Roger Revelle Lecture, the Ocean Studies Board sig- nals the value of fruitful engagement between the sci- ences and humanities. Their decision honors Roger Revelle’s legacy. A brilliant geophysicist and ocean- Bographer, Revelle embraced interdisciplinary approaches during the final years of his career, turning his attention to malnutrition, global poverty, and education. Roger Revelle recognized that thorny prob- lems required multiple forms of knowledge. Historians approach the past as if it were a foreign country. Getting there is difficult; un- derstanding what’s encountered even more so. (Lowenthal, 1985; Appleby et al., 1994) Evidence is fragmentary, and contexts are crucial. Historical observations are clearly important: anyone seek- ing perspective on the contemporary fisheries crisis, for instance, or Figure 1.During the 1850s when serious concerns were first raised about the depletion of cod and mackerel stocks, this is the sort of simple vessel from which fish were caught. Men hand-lined from deck. The Marblehead schooner, Amy Knight, striving to understand how healthy marine ecosystems once func- built c. 1820. Model by Erik Ronnberg. Photo courtesy of Erik Ronnberg.

tioned, would do well to pay attention to the past. Yet despite a re- and policymakers have been grap- U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, oversaw scientific management under revi- cent groundswell of interest in historical evidence by some marine pling with fisheries depletion for a one of the most generously funded sions of federal fisheries law in the very long time. That conversation federal research initiatives in the Magnuson-Stevens Act (Pauly and scientists, it has yet to penetrate deeply into assessment and policy began in earnest during the 1850s country (Pauly, 2000; Bolster, Maclean, 2003; Rose, 2007). (Alexander et al., 2011; Kittinger et al., 2015; Engelhard et al., 2016). (Figure 1) (Bolster, 2012). In 1871 2012). Investigators’ data revealed Our twenty-first-century fisher- federal politicians commenced on-going depletion. ies crisis has been regarded right- spending taxpayers’ dollars to re- Industrial fishing began in ear- fully as an ecological and political verse declining catches. Spencer F. nest after World War One. Over- problem, but too infrequently un- Baird, one of the most prominent fishing increased. By the 1950s, derstood in light of history—as if We are the first generation to con- there be fish for the future?” roots in the northwest Atlantic, and scientists in America, and the Di- foreign factory processing ships nature and science were somehow front numerous distress signals from It is easy to blame modern in much of the world (Jackson et rector of the U.S. Commission on were fishing the northwest At- separate from the study of the past the living ocean: pollution, habitat technology for ecological prob- al., 2001; Myers and Worm, 2003; Fish and Fisheries, argued shortly lantic, further reducing biomass (Bolster, 2006). The lion’s share destruction, plastic infestation, an- lems in the fishery, easy to assume Rosenberg et al., 2005; Lotze et al, thereafter for “the restoration of our (Warner, 1977). By 1976, with of marine ecology and fisheries oxic zones, overfishing, biological that our problems began with post- 2006; Bolster, 2012). When histori- exhausted cod fisheries” (USCFF, the adoption of the Magnuson Act management articles published invasions, ocean acidification, and World War Two factory ships, rug- cal evidence is assessed, one thing 1874). It never happened (Figure 2). and the 200-mile Exclusive Eco- every year cover only a brief span coral bleaching. Worries in the past ged polyester nets, electronic fish- becomes readily apparent. The state By the late nineteenth and nomic Zone, northwest Atlantic of time. They cannot help but sus- were more focused. In nineteenth- finders and pinpoint GPS naviga- of marine ecosystems and fisheries early twentieth centuries, the U.S. groundfish stocks were reeling. pend attention to drivers of eco- century America, they revolved tion. Voluminous evidence shows is worse than most experts imagine. Commission on Fish and Fisheries, They have never recovered. Many system function such as natural around a central question: “Would otherwise. Overfishing has deep American fishermen, scientists, and its successor after 1903, the have continued to decline, despite variability, historic anthropogenic

8 9 influences, the presence or absence precise ecosystem modeling are Can we expand the defini- I certainly don’t have all the salmon, bass and shad came up the tiously—still with handmade nets of certain organisms, long-term cli- also riddled with uncertainties, de- tion of what constitutes the “best answers, but I can tell you how we river in plenty, but they have for- from small rowboats and sailboats matic cycles, and extreme weather pending on the assumptions made, scientific information available” got here. sook it.” A keen observer and life- near shore. Neighbors got involved. events, among others. Lack of data data used, categories of analysis to include more evidence from long resident, Chadbourne, then in People in Blue Hill had com- is clearly a problem, compounded ignored, and hypotheses examined the past? A National Academies his sixties, revealed how fishing mercialized a previously underuti- by some researchers’ unwillingness (Link et al., 2012). Each approach, report in 2004 on improving the had altered the estuarine ecosys- lized resource—a recurring theme to dig deeply in unfamiliar types of whether by historians or modelers, best scientific information avail- tem during his lifetime. Evidence in fisheries history. Otherwise, they sources, or to imagine how various has uncertainties. They are just dif- able took a step in that direction rom 1639 to 1702 from the northwest Atlantic prior were doing with menhaden what materials from the past might in- ferent, a result of those practitio- when it referred to the usefulness New Englanders to 1800 reveals that the ecosys- they and neighbors had done with form their studies. ners’ training and the material at of anecdotal information in some passed laws to pre- tem roles of marine mammals, sea cod and mackerel for decades. Lo- Statistical stock assessments their disposal. The anthropologist circumstances. Of course, anec- serve striped bass, birds, and anadromous fish had all cals caught nearby fish, packed fish remain the gold standard for man- dotes are only one form of histori- cod, and mackerel, been reduced, and that estuarine products in barrels, and sent them agement decisions, yet they rarely cal evidence (NRC, 2004). despiteF the sea of plenty lapping at productivity had been degraded. away for money. It seemed logical rely on information more than a The conversation is really about their feet. We could snort with de- Such observations are waypoints and lucrative (Bolster, 2012). few decades old. Managers’ goal that old question—will there be fish rision, regarding those colonists as worth noting (Chadbourne, 1797). Yet hundreds of fishermen re- is sustaining the biomass necessary for the future? Managers need tools foolish because there were plenty American fishermen ignored acted angrily, inundating legislators for maximum sustainable yield. to help stocks recover. It is easy to of fish. Or we could recognize that menhaden entirely throughout the with petitions. Boothbay residents Recent data alone, however, and make a case that without statisti- as emigrants from places with de- colonial period, though farmers in in 1852 insisted that “Taking Men- calculations derived from it (no cal stock assessment and scientific graded ecosystems, colonials were Long Island Sound and Narragan- haden … in our Bays, Rivers, and matter how elegant), cannot help management since 1976, the state worried about depletion. Their sett Bay seined them during the Harbours is very destructive to said but ignore historic ecosystem pro- of the fisheries would be consider- policies reflected local ecological late eighteenth century fish and if persisted in will ductivity, along with other aspects ably worse than it currently is. Pres- concerns (Bolster, 2012). for fertilizer. Menhaden eventually destroy them of past ecosystem configuration. sures from the fishing industry and Discernable human impacts on are bony, oily cousins “Each or drive them from our That leads policy-makers, pres- its lobbyists have been intense. That marine ecosystems were apparent of herring, and for- human coast.” Men from Deer sured by commercial and commu- said, management protocols in place by the presidency of George Wash- age fish par excellence Isle, Ellsworth, Surry, and Figure 2. In 1873, Spencer F. Baird, generation nity groups, to establish restoration Director of the U.S. Fish Commission, during the last forty years have not ington. By then, Atlantic Gray (Franklin, 2007). Today came to Sedgewick concurred. In goals reflecting only a fraction of argued for “restoration of our exhaust- stopped the on-going degradation Whales were extinct. Right Whales industrial fishers seine expect 1857 Gouldsboro fisher- fish abundances once considered ed cod fisheries.” It never happened. of many fisheries. In the face of this were greatly reduced. Great Auks, menhaden to render men, fearing “the material Photo courtesy of NOAA. Adapted less, normal. Such present-centered from W. Jeffrey Bolster, The Mortal on-going problem, methodological North Atlantic “penguins,” were them into oil, and ani- settling injury of the codfishing approaches lead everyone—sci- Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age change seems warranted. heading for extinction. Other sea- mal or poultry feed. A for a interests in this state, re- entists, policy-makers, and the of Sail (2012). Meaningful change to the fed- birds had been depleted. The abun- small-scale menhaden radically quested legislative action public—to misapprehend the scale eral fisheries law should include dance and distribution of walrus oil rendering operation diminished to “prevent the future de- of the problem, and the fact that Ruth Benedict pointed out years recognition of findings by historical had been severely reduced, push- began in Rhode Island natural struction of the menha- generations have struggled with it. ago that if we are to truly under- marine ecologists. Historical obser- ing a species once common near in 1811, but fishermen world” den” (MeSA, Legislative I admit candidly that histori- stand things, “we must know as vations provide sorely needed per- Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in Maine generally con- Laws, 1852; MeSA, Leg- cal evidence is often messy, in- much about the eye that sees as spective on rebuilding fish stocks. toward the Arctic. Anadromous tinued to ignore those little fish. islative Graveyard, 1857). complete, and inconsistent—that about the object seen …. Means of Clearly, protocols for evaluating fish runs had shrunk. That changed in 1850. John This fury was unlike anything it is characterized by uncertainties. perception [are] conditioned by the such work will need to be devel- In 1797 Judge Benjamin Chad- Bartlett, of Blue Hill, Maine seined that had previously existed in Frequently it does not lend itself to trajectory in which its possessor oped. While that will be conten- bourne described the Salmon Falls a few baskets of menhaden, which Maine’s legislative record. Upon quantification. It is often difficult to has been reared” (Benedict, 1943). tious, management approaches River, which flows into the Pisca- his wife boiled on the beach. She encountering it in the archives, I merge with data recently obtained. Fisheries management, I suggest, honoring different forms of knowl- taqua River, the southern border skimmed the oil, and a Boston was shocked. Why were so many Of course, sophisticated stock would benefit from openness to edge should contribute to the re- between Maine and New Hamp- merchant offered her $11 a barrel. fishermen angry about the com- assessments and mathematically more “means of perception.” covery of living marine resources. shire. “Formerly, large fish such as The Bartletts seined more ambi- mercialization of menhaden, and

10 11 the money it was bringing into during spawning season. In 1855 came together in 2000, committed decline. The 2009 biomass estimate their hardscrabble towns? the Maine Legislature prohib- to interdisciplinary approaches to was a paltry 24,000 mt, only 2% of As pieces of the puzzle came ited seining mackerel within three historic fisheries. We were fortu- that in 1852. Given very light fish- together, it became clear that the miles of shore—the area it con- nate to find historical records that ing pressure in recent years, it ap- 1850s were the first decade in trolled (Bolster, 2012). Historians could be merged with a modern pears that natural mortality is deci- which fishermen from Massachu- call what occurred in the 1850s a population dynamics model to mating cod (Canada DFO, 2017). setts, New Hampshire, Maine, turning point. By then, the fishing create quantifiable data for nine- Numerical estimates of historic Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick banks seaward of New England teenth century fisheries. Our re- fisheries abundance are very rare. organized systematically to express and Atlantic Canada had been a sults helped explain why fisher- Few extend beyond the 1960s, concerns about the future of cod, coupled human-and-natural system men changed their tune during the even in the North Atlantic, where haddock, and mackerel. Colonials for centuries (Liu et al., 2007). 1850s. Fishermen felt that catches data collection has been the most had lamented the demise of anad- were declining. They were right. comprehensive. Fisheries records romous fish—the shad, salmon, One of our studies used ex- from most other parts of the world sturgeon, and others that ascended traordinarily rich data from 326 are notoriously worse, character- rivers to spawn. Those fish were fishing schooners from Beverly, ized by short time spans, unreliable sitting ducks. Not until the 1850s, s part of the Massachusetts that fished the Nova landings records, and lack of catch- Figure 4. Above: Nova Scotian Shelf Catch Per Unit Effort 1852-1859. (CPUE = however, did large numbers of Census of Marine Scotian Shelf during the 1850s, per-unit-effort (CPUE) data (Al- hundreds fish/day per vessel ton). Below: Estimates of cod biomass on the Nova fishermen articulate what they saw Life, a University along with catch records from an- Abdulrazzak et al., 2015). Put an- Scotian Shelf over 167 years.Adapted from Rosenberg, et. al., 2005, Frontiers as threats to true sea fish. In 1852 of New Hamp- other 1,313 American schooners other way, we don’t know a great in Ecology and the Environment. the Nova Scotia Assembly debat- shire research also fishing there (Rosenberg et al., deal about measurable ecosystem ed outlawing the mackerel fishery Agroup of historians and ecologists 2005; Bolster et al., 2011). productivity in many areas today, ers working to balance stock re- complexity. Fishing shrank abun- We discovered that the 1850s much less in the past. Creating a building with fisheries yield.” Too dances, altered population structure Figure 3. Geographic distribution of 19th-century fishing, with modern manage- were a grim decade in the offshore defensible biomass estimate for an many changes have occurred, they by removing large individuals, af- ment areas. The Nova Scotian Shelf, highlighted in blue, figured prominently on banks fishery (Figure 3). Landings important fishing ground in 1852, argue, which “preclude rebuilding fected predator-prey relationships, this 1853 British Admiralty Chart of the Gulf and River St. Lawrence … (London: Bayfield, Holbrook, & Bullock). Red crosses track the course of the Beverly schoo- per boat per season declined from before the onset of industrialized a stock to its unfished level” (Hen- and changed fishes’ geographic dis- ner Angler, spring 1853. Red ovals indicate location and relative magnitude of 26,217 cod in 1852 to only 14,414 fishing, provided the scale of a derschedt, 2015). tribution. As a result, each human daily catch.British Admiralty chart courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum. Chart in 1859. Statisticians in our group healthy fish population. That popu- On the one hand, marine eco- generation came to expect less, of NAFO management areas courtesy Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organi- zation. GIS by Stefan Claesson. Compiled by Karen E. Alexander. Adapted analyzed the data using a variation lation was by no means pristine: it systems are dynamic and suscep- settling for a radically diminished from Rosenberg, et. al., 2005, Frontiers in Ecology and The Environment. of the Chapman-DeLury stock as- had been fished commercially for tible to significant reconfiguration. natural world (Pauly, 1995). sessment method, assuming iden- more than three centuries. Systems have changed. On the It seems probable that cod’s tical rates of natural mortality and Our estimate of historic bio- other hand, historical evidence downturn during the 1850s was recruitment. The model allowed mass revealed defining character- provides perspective. The cod bio- caused by synergy between over- solving for initial abundance, that istics of past oceans. Nevertheless, mass figure for 1852 is a nagging fishing and natural fluctuations. is, the biomass of cod on the Nova it was so far from twenty-first reminder of how much coastal The middle of the nineteenth centu- Scotian Shelf in 1852. Our esti- century biomass estimates for the ecosystems have diminished in a ry was exceptionally cold, the final mate was 1.26 million metric tons same region that it seemed strato- very short time—only six human shudder of the Little Ice Age. Cold (mt) (Figure 4). spheric, somehow not to scale. generations. seawater can inhibit cod reproduc- The 2002 cod biomass estimate Canadian managers today use a Our off-the-charts cod biomass tion. As temperatures fell, North by Fisheries and Oceans Canada 1980s biomass estimate as their estimate for 1852 illuminates the Atlantic cod productivity probably for the same region was less than target for rebuilding cod. Many shifting baseline syndrome identi- fell as well. Meanwhile, fishermen 50,000 metric tons, about 4% of managers consider historical evi- fied by Daniel Pauly in 1995. Pauly continued to hit stocks hard (Leav- that in 1852 (Canada DFO, 2002). dence as not “an appropriate refer- recognized that fishing pressure enworth, 2006; Rose, 2007). Cod biomass there has continued to ence point for present-day manag- through time reduced ecosystem As cod catches plummeted off-

12 13 shore during the 1850s, and as out- cies, and ecological havoc. Most a very short time. tion, or “whether he must not at Cape Cod that summer, and they raged inshore fishermen protested striking is that only one of the four Whale oil landings flattened out last be exterminated from the wa- were extraordinarily scarce for the new menhaden fishery that was species, mackerel, had been fished at mid-century because sailing ship ters, and the last whale, like the last six years following. Oil factories destroying forage fish, animated commercially prior to the early technology had harvested most of man, smoke his last pipe, and then closed. One thousand men lost y the 1880s discussions from Massachusetts to nineteenth century. As Americans the whales it could reach. “Wheth- himself evaporate in the final puff.” their jobs. Good data exists on mackerel was Nova Scotia focused on depletion developed new markets and new er Leviathan can long endure so But oil could be rendered from menhaden landings from 1873 to America’s most and the need for conservation. technologies, previously under- wide a chase, and so remorseless a menhaden as well as whales. Amer- the present. It is one of the longest popular food fish. Using 1,664 inshore fishing utilized species became desirable. havoc,” Herman Melville wrote in ica’s first mechanized fishing boats time series in fisheries history, and In 1884 mackerel logbooks from New England, along Several were driven to the brink in Moby-Dick in 1851, was the ques- were menhaden seiners, built in the it reveals that menhaden popula- Blandings broke all records. This with an analysis of the entire fleet’s 1870s. Menhaden landings soared, tions fluctuate widely (Vaughan fishery was still conducted entirely tonnage and fishing patterns, our nearly all from inshore fisheries. and Smith, 2009). Was the crash under sail. Powerful modern mack- group was able to create a math- Landings in 1878 surpassed those in 1879 a natural downturn, or the erel schooners had great speed and ematically defensible landings esti- in many of the next sixty years, result of overfishing, or synergy windward ability. mate for Gulf of Maine cod in 1861. although catching technology got between the two? We will never Disaster struck in 1886. Fisher- This predated all other data sets for progressively more efficient, with know for sure, though it set the men landed less mackerel that year that fishery. Our estimate, expressed larger ships, stronger nets, hydrau- stage for subsequent collapses, than in any of the previous forty- as a range (depending on the multi- lic haulers, and spotter aircraft. alerting politicians, industrialists, five years. Bankruptcies followed. plier used to convert whole fish to Disaster struck in 1879. Men- and fishermen that the sea’s bounty The mackerel crash resulted in the dried fish), was between 62,600 and haden barely appeared north of was not limitless. ’ first federal fishery 78,600 metric tons. Gulf of Maine law. In 1887 Congress closed the landings have never been as good mackerel fishery for five years -be (Alexander et al., 2009). tween March 1 and June 1, then Our landings estimate sug- understood as spawning season gests that the fishery was thriving (Bolster, 2012). Mackerel landings in 1861. Contemporaries did not would not reach their 1884 level think so. During the 1860s, when again until 1968. By then, of course, the average inshore boat was land- motorized fishing ships were bigger, ing almost 16,000 cod per season, stronger, and more efficient. Maine fishermen proposed various bills to the legislature to reduce overfishing and save their cod. Conservation sentiment aimed at mackerel, menhaden, and cod was he Atlantic at its height among New England halibut slaughter fishermen during the 1850s, 1860s, proceeded like that and 1870s. Yet despite those ef- of American bison, forts, the situation worsened. ruthlessly and in During the late nineteenth Tplain sight. Halibut had been century unprecedented collapses ignored for centuries, until the occurred in four American fisher- Figure 5B. Scatterplot of aggregated cod catch per day in Frenchman’s Bay in 1830s, when entrepreneurs began ies—menhaden, mackerel, hali- 1861. Almost all commercial fisheries were once conducted inshore. In French- to promote them. During the 1840s man’s Bay alone 148,704 cod were caught in 1861. Fisheries restoration policy but, and lobster. They triggered Figure 5a. Frenchman’s Bay, Mt. Desert Island, Maine, 1885. U.S. Coast and should pay attention to spatial distribution as well as to overall numbers. Courtesy Gloucester created a halibut fleet. protective legislation, bankrupt- Geodetic Survey. of Karen E. Alexander. In 1848, Atlantic halibut landings

14 15 tion. But it matters. Another point, considerably more catching pow- syndrome. Time and time again, too often ignored, is that prior to er than old hand-lines. It is well knowledge of previous depletion industrialized fishing, humans known, they wrote, that “if this was lost with adoption of more ef- wielding very simple technologies mode of taking fish” continues, “in ficient gear. In 1870, for instance, affected marine ecosystems in a few years these banks … will be the Portsmouth, New Hampshire profound ways (Figure 6). Finally: rendered altogether unproductive.” cod fishery was thriving: accord- fluctuations in those systems were The next year legislators in both ing to a newspaper “over a mil- the norm. Human impacts must be Newfoundland and Maine intro- lion pounds of codfish have been assessed against constantly occur- duced bills to prohibit long-lining. landed at one wharf in Portsmouth ring natural changes. Throughout the 1860s numerous during the past winter.” Despite Ill-advised as were the post- attempts to prevent long-lining their concerns, local fishermen had Civil War halibut and lobster in- “for the purpose of protecting the adopted long-lines. “In and about dustries, reckless abandon was not cod fishery” were introduced in the harbor, there is now sunk over Figure 6. Simple technologies affected fish stocks. Rowboats like these were central to American fishing prior to World War the norm in every fishery. What coastal legislatures. In 1869 Mas- 63 miles of trawls [long-lines], One, and they persisted longer in some fisheries. Upper: a seine boat used to encircle a school of mackerel or menhaden with is most striking about those years sachusetts’ fish commissioners on which are hung over 96,000 a purse seine. Seine boats were towed behind schooners. Lower: a dory, which could be used to long-line cod, set lobster was fishermen’s insistence that the noted complaints “of a diminution hooks.” Not long before, such traps, or assist a seine boat crew. Models by Erik Ronnberg. Photo courtesy of Erik Ronnbereg. resources on which they depended in many species” (Bolster, 2012). gear would have been considered were approximately 20 million Lobsters were next. Everyone documents/lobster.table.pdf). were shrinking, and their realiza- Here is the tragedy: Fishermen immoral. By 1870 it was the new pounds. From the bonanza in the in the lobster business believed Unlike halibut, however, lob- tion that new gear and new fisher- often vehemently protested new norm (Gloucester Telegraph, 1870). late 1840s, landings tailed off, and that the largest harvests occurred ster populations rebounded toward ies were exacerbating the problem. gear, convinced it would drive a 1905 saw introduction of the then fell precipitously. Shortly be- during the early 1870s. Maine’s the end of the twentieth century, In 1861 a legislative committee nail into the coffin of the fisher- first steam-powered otter trawler fore 1900 they fell to about 9 mil- lobster landings were not tallied and in the new millennium they in Nova Scotia came down hard on ies—though they ultimately ad- (bottom dragger) in the western lion pounds; then to 3 million in reliably until 1880. Nine years lat- have been astronomical. 2016 saw long-lining, a new technology with opted it. That’s the shifting baseline Atlantic, the Spray (Figure 7). A 1910, and to about 1.25 million in er saw the highpoint—24,451,219 a record harvest by Maine lobster- close copy of British fishing ships 1915. Mopping up operations con- pounds (Historical Maine Fisheries men: approximately 131 million that had redefined North Sea fish- tinued for a few more decades. Landings Data). pounds. Today Gulf of Maine fish- ing, Spray actively pursued fish by Today Atlantic halibut are so Disaster struck in the 1890s. ermen have nearly all their eggs towing a net on the bottom. That depleted from overfishing that they Landings fell precipitously that in one basket—the lobster fishery. was revolutionary. Fishermen had are off-limits to commercial fishing decade, and then fell again. Not About 80% of Maine’s fishing rev- always waited for fish to come to in American waters. It had taken until 1957 would Maine lobster- enue now is lobster based. When hooks or gill-nets (Figure 8). only several human generations to men land as much as had been the stock crashes it will create a “The time to stop this thing is destroy the population of a huge, landed 68 years earlier. By then catastrophe far worse than that of while it is in its beginning,” insisted well-known apex predator. Dur- lobstermen had large motorized the 1890s (http://www.maine.gov/ a Massachusetts Congressman, who ing the 1880s Captain Joseph W. boats, with mechanical haulers, dmr/commercial-fishing/landings/ introduced a bill in 1911 to prohibit Collins lamented in a widely circu- and nearly five times as many documents/lobster.table.pdf). trawling. The Gloucester Board of lated U.S. Fish Commission publi- traps to catch the same weight of Several points from this brief Trade backed the prohibition, cit- cation that “if the present style of lobsters that had been caught in narrative deserve attention. All ing evidence of North Sea depletion fishing is pursued” halibut “will 1889, when men fished shallow of those fisheries were initially by fleets of steam trawlers. John F. in a few years become extremely waters from sailboats and row- inshore operations (Figure 5). Fitzgerald, the mayor of what he scarce, if not almost extinct.” He boats. Fool-hardy overfishing at As depletion ensued, fishermen Figure 7. Most fishermen initially feared destructive trawling technology and re- called “the biggest fish port in the was right. And they were all hook- mid-century decimated the lobster moved offshore. Recent manage- sisted it. The first encounter of schooner fishermen with a steam trawler in the western world” (Boston), expressed western hemisphere took place shortly after the launch of Spray, in 1905.Thomas caught from small sailboats and fishery (http://www.maine.gov/ ment plans have paid insufficient M. Hoyne, New Ways on Quero Bank, 1981; courtesy of Doris O. Hoyne and concerns about “wiping out the fish rowboats (Bolster, 2012). dmr/commercial-fishing/landings/ attention to fishes’ spatial distribu- the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. Gift of Russell W. Knight, 1982. industry.” Colossal opposition to

16 17 bottom trawling existed, based on more sophisticated. Western At- low point came in the 1990s. Slight cod have been undermined, appar- insiders’ knowledge that fisheries lantic catches ultimately peaked rebuilding followed. We are living ently by warming water. Warming were already depleted. But Con- during the late 1960s, with huge through another low point now. water has reduced recruitment and gress refused to ban the new tech- foreign factory ships. By 1976, The latest tragedy is that man- increased mortality in cod stocks nology (Bolster, 2012). American and Canadian ground agers’ efforts to reduce fishing (Pershing et al., 2015). Once again, By 1914 the U.S. Fish Commis- fish had been decimated. A further pressure and rebuild Gulf of Maine marine systems’ complexity and sion (and its successor, the Bureau dynamism has thwarted the best ef- of Fisheries) had existed for more forts to manage those systems for than forty years, spending consid- humans’ desired outcomes. erable taxpayer dollars to increase Swordfish have been one of landings. Among other tactics, they management’s great successes in managed an aggressive program for the last quarter century, though propagating fish, clams, and lob- historical evidence suggests that sters. Scientists liked to laud their swords’ recovery has not been as accomplishments, but remaining extensive as many believe. From Figure 10. Historical approaches provide sorely needed perspective. This graph optimistic was not easy, even before 1960 to 1996, stocks declined 68 is not precise, but it is accurate. Courtesy Karen E. Alexander a New York Times reporter drew on percent, while the average size of decades of Bureau of Fisheries data North Atlantic swordfish dropped Scotia. Although North Atlantic mented depletions. Using terms for a major feature in 1914. Figure 8. Otter trawls were revolutionary. Fishermen no longer waited for fish to from 266 to 90 pounds. During the swordfish biomass is now at a such as “diminution” and “degra- approach a hook or gill net, but actively pursued them. In spite of serious opposi- “Extermination Threatens tion, by about 1925 otter trawling was the new “normal.” Fishermen who had long 1990s the U.S. reduced landings to sustainable level, swords have not dation,” they begged politicians American Sea Fisheries – Cost to feared its destructiveness came to embrace it, becoming victims of the shifting rebuild stocks. The International repopulated their historic range. to solve the fisheries problem. Consumer Has Risen between 10 baseline syndrome. From John Dyson, Business in Great Waters: The Story of Commission for the Conservation Moreover, captured fish today are Scientists, meanwhile, led by the British Fishermen (London, 1977), 261. and 600 Per Cent Because of De- of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT)—the much smaller. Technological shifts U.S. Fish Commission, gener- crease in Supply” (Widenmann, regional fisheries management in the fishery have allowed fisher- ally encouraged more robust fish- 1914) (Figure 9). The Bureau’s organization tasked with manag- men to pursue them hundreds of ing, believing that the biological storied efforts to propagate sea ing high seas swordfish—adopted miles offshore, and landings re- knowledge and better fishing gear fish had not worked. The defining a rebuilding plan. Swordfish grow main robust. But the current land- they were developing would sus- trajectory was clear, and discon- quickly, and spawn in temporally- ings data and biomass estimates tain larger harvests. certing. Fishermen went farther and spatially-dispersed ways. With about which regulators are so hap- During the early 1930s, Woods afield, fished at greater depths, but less fishing pressure, swordfish re- py exist over a huge spatial scale— Hole biologists revealed notorious- brought home less. Draggers were bounded. An assessment in 2009 the stock’s entire range. Close- ly poor year classes of haddock on just coming on line. An avalanche found the stock rebuilt. An assess- grained historical data reveal local Georges Bank. The scientific com- of cheap fish would soon silence ment in 2013 concluded that its depletions in areas where sword- munity recommended larger mesh the critics, camouflaging the extent biomass would allow sustainable fish were once common. Shifted size and smaller harvests. That was of damage already done. fishing (Neilson et al., 2013; http:// spatial baselines may be obscuring radical—one of the first instances Most people today know at www.nmfs.noaa.gov/ia/slider_sto- the extent of the stock’s rebuilding in which fisheries scientists sug- least the rough outlines of what ries/2013/11/swordfish.html). (MacKenzie et al, in preparation). gested reducing catches. By then happened next. Bottom trawling Considerable historical evi- One waypoint remains rela- bottom trawling had become the initially caught lots of fish, in- dence from 80 to 130 years ago, tively known in the rancorous dis- new norm, and fishermen—having cluding unwanted ones. By-catch Figure 9. Based on forty years of data collected by the U.S. Fish Commission however, structured into quantita- cussions that have characterized lost sight of previous depletions— soared, as did habitat destruction. and the Bureau of Fisheries, this article revealed that while catching power had tive analyses, shows that swordfish American fisheries policy for the had thrown caution to the wind. expanded, catches continued to decline. Revolutionary new bottom trawling tech- Fishing boats got bigger. Technol- nology would soon obscure that chilling insight with an avalanche of cheap fish. were then abundant in nearshore last 160 years. From the 1850s American fishermen reacted an- ogy to find and catch fish became From The New York Times, July 26, 1914. regions of New England and Nova through the 1920s, fishermen la- grily to the idea of throttling back,

18 19 convinced that if they did not catch tems. For instance, the presence, overfished. Moreover, overfish- vironmental history has worked its know that is an unrealistic aspira- tablished record of fouling up the those haddock, Canadians would. absence, and descriptions of or- ing is not occurring. In light of way into the literature in the last tion at this time, but so was the abo- ecosystems on which we rely for The terms of the debate re- ganisms in particular times and at depleted haddock stocks in the twenty years. Policy-makers com- lition of slavery during the 1840s. crucial goods and services. That mained the same: “Not enough particular locations have long been early 1990s, the recent spawning mitted to sustainability and resil- We must live in hopes. sort of framing deserves attention. fish” versus “fish harder.” But the grouped, ranked, ordered, and ana- stock biomass of Gulf of Maine ience could draw on that work. Given that marine ecosystems It would help us link management sides switched. Fishermen, who lyzed to show decline. Images of haddock reflects managers’ suc- Ultimately, of course, it will not are coupled human-natural sys- with humility. The bottom line is had long lamented depletion, in- species’ size and abundance have cess—10,325 mt in 2015. Had- be honored sufficiently until stan- tems, we should assess them ho- that we take too much. That has sisted during the 1930s they should likewise been analyzed (Jackson, dock has rebounded dramatically. dards about “the best scientific in- listically. That is clearly the goal been the case for centuries, and fish without restriction. Scientists, 1997; McClenachan and Cooper, Historical data, however, pro- formation available” are revised to of ecosystem-based management well known, too. It’s not just fish. who had long believed in the sea’s 2008; McClenachan, 2009). His- vide perspective. In 1902, almost include observations from the past (Pikitch, et al., 2004). I’m encour- Look at water in the American ultimate productivity, began to ad- torical evidence can be binned at 10,000 mt of haddock were caught (Engelhard et al., 2016). aged, but leery. Ecosystem based West (Reisner, 1986). vocate conservation. Both sides intervals. Terms used repetitively in the Gulf of Maine. That makes Conservation advocates have management may require more My immersion in historical continued to talk past each other can reveal relative abundance. We me question the assertion that had- suggested more Marine Protected data to build even more compli- fisheries was sobering. Yet my in- (Bolster, 2012). found 3028 descriptions, in seven dock is “fully recovered” (https:// Areas, seasonal moratoriums, and cated models. If current standards timacy with depictions of nearly Discussions of the problem categories, ranking cod abundance www.nefsc.noaa.gov/groundfish/ promoting recovery of forage fish. regarding data acceptability remain unfathomable abundance also have persisted for more than 160 in nineteenth-century Frenchman’s operational-assessments-2015/ Historians and historical ecologists in place, historical evidence will promoted a sense of wonder. That years, even as the problem has Bay logbooks: no fish, fish very Reports/2015_HAD_GM_Assess- concur, but suggest as well that we continue to be excluded. inspiration is worth nurturing, and worsened. Is it time to take a dif- scarce, fish scarce, fish, some fish, ment_Report_20150913.pdf; Alex- learn to manage with an eye on Self-perpetuating academic right now it is only available in the ferent tack? Or should we just fish plenty, and fish very plenty. ander et al., 2011). changes over time, as well as an silos remain a problem. I would historical record. count the few fish that remain Correlations existed between cod A NOAA report for all managed eye on spatial distribution within like to see rising generations of more carefully (Figure 10)? rank and cod landings. Similar fisheries stated “39 Stocks Rebuilt fishes’ range. The entire range of scientists and scholars trained in descriptions of bait abundance as of December 31, 2015.” Many a species is not a meaningful unit interdisciplinary ways, so that per- provided more ecosystem indica- pronouncements about “rebuilt” of analysis. Let’s pay attention to ceptions are broadened. Acknowledge- tors. Arithmetic, simple statistics, stocks are based on severely limited where fish were caught, and where Finally, we must give this ments and GIS applied to historical ob- management targets, not on histori- they are caught. Can we create process time. Rebuilding will not Looking Forward servations hold out the promise of cal ecology (http://www.nmfs.noaa. policy that promotes not just re- occur in the two-year or four- hankS TO Molly creating snapshots from the past gov/sfa/fisheries_eco/status_of_fish- covery of biomass, but restoration year political cycle, or in the ten Bolster, Karen E. omplex systems (Alexander et al., 2009). eries/archive/2015/fourth/rebuilt_ of fishes’ historic ranges (Alexan- years stipulated by the Magnuson- Alexander, Emily deserve complex Binning evidence historically stocks_q4_2015.png). der et al., 2011)? Stevens Act. The National Marine Klein, Matthew G. analysis. Without has shown how humans have in- Given the devastated state of Fisheries Service is charged with McKenzie, Susan discarding statisti- fluenced marine ecosystems over marine ecosystems, perhaps we managing the tattered remnant of TRoberts, Stacee Karras, and Steve cal stock analysis, long periods of time (Pandolfi, should be managing for resilience, a once-productive system. Given Jones for thoughtful reading of this Cdespite its limitations and uncer- 2003; Lotze and Milewski, 2004), rather than for maximum sustain- the system’s fragility, and on-go- manuscript. My training as a ma- tainties, we might incorporate and that an extreme climate event How might able yield. The stated purpose of ing environmental change, further rine environmental historian grew other forms of knowledge into in 1815 permanently transformed management the Magnuson-Stevens Act is to collapses are likely (Pershing et al., out of the Census of Marine Life, management plans, including the Gulf of Maine fisheries (Alexander change? “promote domestic and commer- 2015). Recovery may be possible, specifically its History of Marine contextualization and perspective et al., 2017). cial recreational fishing under sound or it may not. To find out, we need Animals Project (HMAP), and the that history provides. Even if historical evidence is o begin with, pol- conservation and management prin- to hunker down for a long haul UNH Cod Project. We received We should develop techniques not fully integrated into scientific icy could catch up to ciples” through “the best scientific with a precautionary approach. substantial funding from the Alfred to incorporate historical informa- data sets, it could frame data and the best available sci- information available.” I would like Fisheries history reveals sev- P. Sloan Foundation, NSF, NH Sea tion, when possible, as an addi- results. According to NOAA’s ence. Considerable to see the law flipped to emphasize eral bold lessons. First: humans Grant, NOAA’s Marine Sanctuary tional data source for use in recon- Fish Watch, for instance, had- research in marine conservation and ecosystem recov- have limited ability to control na- Program, and a UNH Center for structing aspects of past ecosys- dock is fully recovered, and not Thistorical ecology and marine en- ery, while allowing some fishing. I ture. Second: Humans have an es- the Humanities Senior Fellowship.

20 21 Sources Cited | Al-Abdulrazzak, A., Zeller, D., and Pauly, D., 2015. Understanding fisheries through historical reconstructions. Marine Historical Ecology in Conservation, eds. Kittinger, J.N., McClenachan, L., Gedan, K., and Blight, L.K.. | Alexander, K.E., Leavenworth, W.B., Cournane, J., Cooper, A.B., Claesson, S., Brennan, S., Smith, G., Rains, L., Magness, K., Dunn, R., Law, T., Gee, R., Bolster, W.J., Rosenberg, A.A., 2009. Gulf of Maine Cod in 1861: historical analysis of fishery logbooks, with ecosystem implications. Fish and Fisheries 10, 428-449. | Alexander, K.E., W.B. Leavenworth, S. Claesson, W.J. Bolster. (2011) Catch Density: a new approach to shifting baselines, stock assessment, and ecosystem-based Thank you management. Bulletin of Marine Science 87(2):213–234. | Alexander, K.E., Leavenworth, W.B., Willis, T.V., Hall, C., Mattocks, S., Bittner, S., Klein, E., 2017. Tambora and the mackerel year: phenology and fisheries during an extreme climate event. Science advances 3, no. 1, e1601635. | Ap- The Ocean Studies Board would like to thank the founding and continuing pleby, J., Hunt, L., Jacob, M., 1994. Telling the Truth about History. | Benedict, R., 1943. Obituary, Franz Boas. Science 97, 60. | Bolster, W.J., 2006. sponsors for their generous support of the Revelle Lecture. Opportunities in Marine Environmental History. Environmental History 11, 567-597. | Bolster, W.J., Alexander, K.E., Leavenworth, W.B., 2011. The historic abundance of cod on the Nova Scotian Shelf in Shifting Baselines: The Past and Future of Ocean Resources, eds. Jackson, J.B.C., Alex- This lecture series would not be possible without their generous contributions. ander, K.E., Sala, E. | Bolster, W. J., 2012. The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail. | Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans, 2002. Science Stock Status Report for Cod Areas 4X and 4VsW. www.mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/rap/internet/. | Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans, 2017. 2016 4X5Yb Atlantic Cod (Gadus morhua) Stock Status Update. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Sci. Resp. 2017/024. | Chadbourne, B., c. 1797. “A Description of the Town and Village.” Mss., Old Berwick Historical Society, South Berwick, Maine. | Engelhard, G., Thurstan, R.H., MacKenzie, B.R., Alleway, H.K., Colin, R., Bannister, A., Cardinale, M., Clarke, M.W., Currie, J.C., Fortibuoni, T., Holm, P., Holt, S.J., Mazzoldi, C., Pinnegar, J.K., Raicevich, S., Volckaert, F.A.M., Klein, E., Lescrauwaet, A-K., 2016. ICES meets historical marine ecology: placing the history of fish and fisheries in current policy context. ICES Journal of Marine Science, doi: 10.1093/icesjms/fsv219. | Franklin, H.B., 2007. The most important fish in the sea. | Gloucester Telegraph, March 23, 1870. | Henderschedt, J., 2015. 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Opening pandora’s box: tradition, competition, and technology on the Scotian Shelf, 1852-1860, in The North Atlantic Fisheries: Supply, Marketing, and Consumption, 1560-1990. Eds. Starkey, D.J. and Candow, J.E. | Link, J.S., Ihde, T.F., Harvey, C.J., Gaichas, S.K., Field, J.C., Brodziak, J.K.T., Townsend, H.M., Perman, R.M., 2012. Dealing with uncertainty in ecosystem models: the paradox of use for living resource management. Progress in Oceanography 102, 102-114. | Liu J., Dietz, T., Carpenter, S.R., Alberti, M., Folke, C., Moran, E., Pell, A. N., Deadman, P., Kratz, T., Lubchenco, J., Ostrom, E., Ouyang, Z., Provencher, W., Redman, C.L., Schneider, S. H., Taylor, W.W., 2007. Complexity of Coupled Human and Natural Systems. Science, 317, 1513-1516. | Lotze, H.K., Milewski, I., 2004. Two centuries of multiple human impacts and successive changes in a north Atlantic food web. Ecological Applications 14, 1428-1447. | Lotze, H.K., Lenihan, H.S., Bourque, B.J., Bradbury, R.H., Cooke, R.G., Kay, M.C., Kidwell, S.M., Kirby, M.X., Peterson, C.H., Jackson, J.B.C., 2006. Depletion, Degradation, and Recovery Potential of Estuaries and Coastal Seas. Science 312,1806-1809. | Lowenthal. D., 1985. The Past is a Foreign Country. | MacKenzie, B., Alexander, K.E., Leavenworth, W.B., Claesson, S., Bolster, W.J., and Cooper, A., (in preparation). Historical evidence opens new swordfish recovery perspectives in the northwest Atlantic. | McClenachan, L.,Cooper, A.B., 2008. Extinction rates, historical population structure and ecological role of the Caribbean monk seal. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 275, 1351-1358. | McClenacan, L., 2009. Documenting loss of large trophy fish from the Florida Keys with historical photographs. Conservation Biology, 23, 636-643. | McClenachan, L., Lovell, S., Keaveney, C., 2015. 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Science. 2015 Nov 13;350(6262):809-12. doi: 10.1126/science.aac9819. | Pikitch, E.A., Santora, C., Babcock, E.A., Bakun, A., Bonfil, R., Conover, D.O., Dayton, P., Doukakis, P., Fluharty, D., Heneman, B., Houde, E.D., Link, J., Livingston, P.A., Mangel, M., McAllister, M.K., Pope, J., and Sains- bury, K.J., 2004. Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management. Science, 305, 346-347. | Reisner, Marc, 1986. Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water. | Rose, G.A., 2007. Cod: The Ecological History of the North Atlantic Fisheries. | Rosenberg, A.A., Bolster, W. J., Alexander, K.E., Leavenworth, W.B, Cooper, A.B., McKenzie, M.G., 2005. The History of Ocean Resources: Modeling Cod Biomass Using Historical Records. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 3, 84-90. | USCFF, 1874. Report of the Commissioner for 1872 and 1873, xiv. | Vaughan, D.S. and Smith, J.S., 2009. Reconstructing Historical Commercial Landings of Atlantic Menhaden. SEDAR 20-DW02. | Warner, W., 1977. Distant Water: The Fate of the North Atlantic Fisherman. | Widenmann, R.A., 1914. Extermination Threatens American Sea Fishes. New York Times, July 26, 1914.

22 23 Revelle Alumni

Dr. peter Dr. shirley Dr. Marcia Dr. Michael Adm. James Dr. Richard brewer A. pomponi K. Mcnutt k. Orbach D. Watkins B. Alley

Dr. Roger Dr. Ken Dr. paul G. Dr. Michael Dr. Jane Dr. nancy Pielke, Jr. Caldeira Falkowski H. Freilich lubchenco rabalais

Dr. Eddie Dr. John Dr. DAVE Dr. susan Dr. phillip j. Dr. Dawn Bernard Walsh karl lozier clapham Wright