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.