Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 King crab dethroned
- 3 The rise and fall of the California sardine empire
- 4 El Niño and variability in the northeastern Pacific salmon fishery: implications for coping with climate change
- 5 The US Gulf shrimp fishery
- 6 The menhaden fishery: interactions of climate, industry, and society
- 7 Maine lobster industry
- 8 Human responses to weather-induced catastrophes in a west Mexican fishery
- 9 Irruption of sea lamprey in the upper Great Lakes: analogous events to those that may follow climate warming
- 10 North Sea herring fluctuations
- 11 Atlanto-Scandian herring: a case study
- 12 Global warming impacts on living marine resources: Anglo-Icelandic Cod Wars as an analogy
- 13 Adjustments of Polish fisheries to changes in the environment
- 14 Climate-dependent fluctuations in the Far Eastern sardine population and their impacts on fisheries and society
- 15 The Peru–Chile eastern Pacific fisheries and climatic oscillation
- 16 Climate change, the Indian Ocean tuna fishery, and empiricism
- 17 Climate variability, climate change, and fisheries: a summary
- Index
10 - North Sea herring fluctuations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 King crab dethroned
- 3 The rise and fall of the California sardine empire
- 4 El Niño and variability in the northeastern Pacific salmon fishery: implications for coping with climate change
- 5 The US Gulf shrimp fishery
- 6 The menhaden fishery: interactions of climate, industry, and society
- 7 Maine lobster industry
- 8 Human responses to weather-induced catastrophes in a west Mexican fishery
- 9 Irruption of sea lamprey in the upper Great Lakes: analogous events to those that may follow climate warming
- 10 North Sea herring fluctuations
- 11 Atlanto-Scandian herring: a case study
- 12 Global warming impacts on living marine resources: Anglo-Icelandic Cod Wars as an analogy
- 13 Adjustments of Polish fisheries to changes in the environment
- 14 Climate-dependent fluctuations in the Far Eastern sardine population and their impacts on fisheries and society
- 15 The Peru–Chile eastern Pacific fisheries and climatic oscillation
- 16 Climate change, the Indian Ocean tuna fishery, and empiricism
- 17 Climate variability, climate change, and fisheries: a summary
- Index
Summary
Introduction
In historical terms, the North Sea herring is one of the most important marine fish resources in the world. It supported major fisheries in many countries of northwest Europe for hundreds of years (Cushing, 1988); yet in 1977 the directed fisheries were closed following a collapse of the stocks to a small fraction of their earlier levels. There is voluminous literature documenting the sequence of events that led up to the closure, the interpretations that were placed upon them, and the arguments that ensued. Only in hindsight, however, can a reasonably convincing account of the causes be assembled and, even now, there are aspects of the problem that defy explanation. The simple fact is that the demography of fish populations in the sea can only be studied by indirect means – from information on what fishermen remove and from the results of sampling on research vessel surveys.
In this contribution, the history of the collapse and subsequent recovery is briefly summarized. In particular, the question addressed is the relevance of environmental changes and whether action could have been taken to prevent or mitigate stock collapse. The impact of the collapse on the fishing industry is discussed and an evaluation is given of what might be required to avoid the consequences of stock collapse in similar instances in the future.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Climate Variability, Climate Change and Fisheries , pp. 213 - 230Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992
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