Accelerated extractions of North Atlantic cod and herring, 1520–1790 ...

• Main Authors: Holm, Poul, Nicholls, John, Hayes, Patrick W, Ivinson, Josh, Allaire, Bernard
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2022
• Subjects: 41 Environmental Sciences; 4104 Environmental Management; atlantic cod; Gadus morhua; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.73785; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/326328

AbstractWe propose the concept of Accelerated Marine Extraction to signify two periods when rapidly increasing cod (Gadus morhua, Gadidae) and herring (Clupea harengus, Clupeidae) fisheries, c.1540–1600 and c. 1730–1790, exceeded human demographic growth. Total landings vastly exceeded previous assessments and more than doubled between 1520 and 1620 from about 220,000 metric tonnes (t) to 460,000 t. Supplies of cod and herring to the European market peaked in 1788 at more than 1 million t before the unrest connected with the French Revolution brought many fisheries to a temporary halt. Accelerated Marine Extractions increased European food security at times of human demographic growth by almost doubling the supplies of fish protein per capita. While herring was the most important species by 1520, cod dominated through the period 1540–1790, and the trajectories of cod and herring extractions differed significantly. Cod landings increased almost ten‐fold between 1520 and 1790, driven by strong and sustained ...