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E-book
Author Bolster, W. Jeffrey

Title The mortal sea : fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail / W. Jeffrey Bolster
Published Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, ©2012

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Description 1 online resource (xi, 378 pages, 20 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations, maps
Contents Prologue : the historic ocean -- Depleted European seas and the discovery of America -- Plucking the low-hanging fruit -- The sea serpent and the mackerel jig -- Making the case for caution -- Waves in a troubled sea -- An avalanche of cheap fish -- Epilogue : changes in the sea
Summary Since the time of the Vikings, the Atlantic has shaped the lives of people who depend on it for survival, and people have shaped the Atlantic. In his account of this interdependency, Bolster, a historian and professional seafarer, takes us through a millennium-long environmental history of our impact on one of the largest ecosystems in the world
Since the Viking ascendancy in the Middle Ages, the Atlantic has shaped the lives of people who depend upon it for survival. And just as surely, people have shaped the Atlantic. In his innovative account of this interdependency, W. Jeffrey Bolster, a historian and professional seafarer, takes us through a millennium-long environmental history of our impact on one of the largest ecosystems in the world. While overfishing is often thought of as a contemporary problem, Bolster reveals that humans were transforming the sea long before factory trawlers turned fishing from a handliner's art into an industrial enterprise. The western Atlantic's legendary fishing banks, stretching from Cape Cod to Newfoundland, have attracted fishermen for more than five hundred years. Bolster follows the effects of this siren's song from its medieval European origins to the advent of industrialized fishing in American waters at the beginning of the twentieth century. Blending marine biology, ecological insight, and a remarkable cast of characters, from notable explorers to scientists to an army of unknown fishermen, Bolster tells a story that is both ecological and human: the prelude to an environmental disaster. Over generations, harvesters created a quiet catastrophe as the sea could no longer renew itself. Bolster writes in the hope that the intimate relationship humans have long had with the ocean, and the species that live within it, can be restored for future generations
Analysis Multi-User
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-333) and index
Notes In English
Print version record
Subject Fisheries -- North Atlantic Ocean -- History
Fishers -- North Atlantic Ocean -- History
Fishery management -- North Atlantic Ocean -- History
Marine biodiversity -- North Atlantic Ocean -- History
TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING -- Fisheries & Aquaculture.
HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT)
Fisheries
Fishers
Fishery management
Marine biodiversity
SUBJECT Atlantic Coast (New England) -- History
Atlantic Coast (Canada) -- History
Subject Canada -- Atlantic Coast
New England -- Atlantic Coast
North Atlantic Ocean
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2012010747
ISBN 9780674067219
0674067215
0674070461
9780674070462
Other Titles Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail