Fisheries Economics and Management
| Author: | Flaaten, Ola |
| Date: | Jan-2010 |
| Publisher: | University of Tromsø |
As long as people have been living on the earth they have utilised fish and other renewable marine resources for food, clothes and other necessities. The species caught have varied across regions and time. For example, the Nordic countries have a several thousand-year history of utilisation of living marine resources. Fish species like cod, herring and salmon, as well as several species of seals and whales, have always been important elements in the diet of coastal people and as goods for trade.
Historically, local people have had free access to these resources in the sense that noauthority above the fishing village or tribal level decided how fishing could take place and the intensity of these activities. Natural short run and long run fluctuations in the size of fish stocks, fish migration, species composition and weather and climate, as well as seasonal variations in the availability of different species, represented the main challenge for the fishers. However, in particular during the twentieth century, several fisheries around the world have experienced more and more restrictions on the freedom of individual fishers to establish and conduct their business. In addition, technological change and the transformation of local supply fisheries to fisheries based on national and global markets have had an immense effect on the way fishers perform their profession.
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