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Olaus Magnus, Carta Marina, 1539
Research Question 1
When and where was marine exploitation of major significance to human society?
Marine Event Horizons (MEH) comparable to the c.1000 CE North European fish event horizon have occurred elsewhere.
Extraction moved from local subsistence to larger operations to feed, clothe, light and warm a wider human population.
MEHs are potentially followed by Accelerated Marine Exploitation (AME), a step change into big hunts:
Defined as large-scale commercial exploitation of marine resources for markets prevailing in large interconnected (e.g. imperial) systems, up to and into the globalising world.
An Inexorable Trajectory of targeting larger fauna and “fishing down” the food web followed MEHs.
4. Global Centres of Marine Consumption developed as nodes of novel marine wealth redistribution and intensified the oceanic reach of globalising seafood trades.
Fisheries and Modern Developments in the West
Marine species have long played a vital role in human societies, providing food security and economic growth. However, when did fisheries and the harvesting of marine species begin to have a significant impact on Euro-American demography, politics and economy? In the late 1500s and again in the late 1700s, fishery catches accelerated rapidly, bringing a measure of food security to growing European and American populations and societies. Environmental dimensions such as geology, bathymetry and oceanic gyres played crucial roles in this process.
Atlantic Wealth
Poul Holm
The silver value of all North Atlantic marine landings doubled between the first half of the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth century. Values were stable until the second half of the eighteenth century when they doubled again (even though there is a caesura in period records during the disruptive decade of the French Revolution). To what extent did marine wealth help put Europe on the path to its Great Divergence from Asia?
Back from Fishing at Sunset
Joseph Vernet, 18th Cent.
SeaCite Database
Cristina Brito, et. al.
The result of 15 years of searching, selecting, compiling, and analysis of written sources, SeaCite contains data from European, and most particularly Iberian, authors. It provides direct quotations from primary and secondary sources in Portuguese and Spanish, and their translations into English where available.
Mining the Ocean
James Barrett, et. al.
Mining the Ocean involves theories, methods and practices incorporating historical archaeology, marine environmental history, climate history, natural history, geography, historical ecology, ancient DNA, radiocarbon dating and zooarchaeology.
Logbook Data
Charles Travis, et. al.
Historical nautical logbooks provide a rich source of oceanic data. From species catch figures, to climate and weather observations logbooks, with daily recordings of longitude and latitude, allow 4-Oceans researchers with the means to plot data and reconstruct historical marine environments, and explore project ideas related to marine extractions and the sustainability of oceanic species.
French Whaling Ship Destinations
Bernard Allaire
This map highlights the evolution of French whaling destinations across the globe, between the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries.
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