‘Let’s make a good job of it and stay in business’: the British distant-water trawler fleet and the coastal mackerel fishery, 1975–1985

This article describes the origins of the first ‘cod war’ between Britain and Iceland in 1958–61. First, it examines the underlying factors which made it very likely that a fishing dispute of some kind would break out between the two countries. Second, it describes the actual events of 1958, when the Icelanders extended their fishing limits to twelve nautical miles and the Royal Navy was sent to protect British trawlers from harassment by Icelandic gunboats. The article is based on archival sources in Britain, Iceland, the United States, Canada, Norway and Denmark.

Stomach contents from 30 long-finned pilot whales Globicephala melas captured incidentally in the Distant Water Fleet (DWF) mackerel fishery off the northeastern United States were examined. Several methods of assessing prey importance were used in order to construct a true representation of the pilot whale diet. Separate analyses of trace (free, durable body parts from well-digested prey) and non-trace (relatively intact prey) food materials were conducted to address biases caused by differential rates of digestion and passage. Squids dominated the diet and long-finned squid Loligo pealei was the most important prey, but we noted large yearly fluctuations in prey importance. Metric multidimensional scaling analyses of trace and non-trace stomach contents of individual whales suggest that many animals were cuaght while feeding opportunistically near fishing operations, resulting in a bias of non-trace (intact) stomach contents. The diversity of prey in this study was greater than previous reports of the food habits of western North Atlantic non-finned pilot whales.

Fisheries policy in the Faroe Islands: Managing for failure?

The nature and evolution of cooperative fishing arrangements in extended jurisdiction zones

The Martian atmosphere has undergone significant decay over time, with several factors contributing to this process. It is believed that thermal (Jeans) escape is a significant contributor to hydrogen loss on Mars (Chaufray, 2021). In this research, the role of thermal (Jeans) escape in the uplifting of hydrogen molecules to the exosphere, driven by solar wind forcing, is investigated on seasonal bases. Studying hydrogen escape seasonally can provide insights into the role of solar forcing in atmospheric processes. This research utilizes observations from the Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS) onboard the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) To study the atmospheric Hydrogen Lyman Alpha emission on seasonal timescales. The data for this study focuses on the perihelion (greater than Ls 225) and aphelion (between 60-90 Ls)  periods, during which variations in the escape flux due to exobase temperature changes are expected. Level 2b/2a data is specifically chosen because it includes calibrated brightness and added geometric data, a combination of different EMUS observation modes is used in the study. The Lyman Alpha brightness measurements are used to derive the density profile of hydrogen in the Martian atmosphere using the same approach described in (Chaufray, 2008). The atmospheric model is divided into two parts, below the exobase the hydrogen density is described by a diffusive model, while above it uses Chamberlain’s model without satellite particles (Chamberlain, 1963). Deriving atmospheric hydrogen density profile is done by assuming the exobase temperature and solving radiative transfer equations to compute theoretical intensities which are then fitted with observational data to determine exobase temperature and density, a reasonable fit of observations is done assuming the parameters are in ranges that are in line with photochemical models (Krasnopolsky, 2002). This approach has been used to analyze the Mariner 6, 7 exospheric Lyman-α data during the late 1960s (Anderson and Hord, 1971), and the same approach has been used to analyze SPICAM Lyman-α data on Mrs express (Chaufray, 2008), this research attempts to use the same approach to analyze EMUS Lyman-α observations. It is expected that the (Jeans) escape flux of Hydrogen will vary on seasonal timescales, with higher escape fluxes observed around the perihelion period when the exobase temperature is the highest. This is due to the fact that the (Jeans) escape mechanism is driven by the temperature of the exobase, with higher temperatures resulting in higher escape rates. On the other hand, it is expected that lower escape fluxes will be observed during the aphelion period when the exobase temperature is lower.

Temperature and precipitation records for Baffin Island are examined on a seasonal basis for the last 40 to 50 years. Accumulation season temperatures (September to May) during the late 1960s were similar to those that prevailed 30 to 40 years ago. Ablation season temperatures (June, July, August) during the same period were cooler than for at least 30 years. Precipitation variations showed much less spatial coherence, but during the last 10 to 15 years there have been marked increases, mostly during winter months. These increases, accompanied by cooler summers and warmer winters, have led to increased glacierization of the area. The most recent fluctuation of summer temperatures is related to changes in the frequency of synoptic types in the area. Baffin Island is sensitive to small changes in climate that are only revealed by an analysis of temperature and precipitation on a seasonal basis.

Anthropogenic influences on the input and biogeochemical cycling of nutrients and mercury in Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA

Coastal states, distant-water fleets and EFJ: Some long-run considerations

Changes in visibility and the occurrence of smoke or haze during the last three decades are identified for eight locations in and around Illinois. The analyses utilize individual daily data and are performed on both seasonal and annual bases. Visibility variation is investigated using cumulative percentiles and mean ridits. Summer is the season that experienced the greatest 1950–80 visibility change. Except at Chicago, this was dominated by a pronounced overall decline that coincided with a marked increase in the frequency of smoke/haze. Superimposed on these trends are 1) a strong early-1960s visibility maximum and smoke/haze minimum for Indianapolis and the northern half of Illinois and 2) particularly pronounced visibility degradation and increased smoke/haze occurrence during the late 1960s at most stations. The 1950–80 summer visibility decline at Chicago was much smaller than elsewhere and coincided with a marked downward smoke/hue frequency trend. The extra-Chicago visibility results for spring are less pronounced versions of their summer counterparts; those for autumn contain the same overall decline, but not the foregoing smaller-scale variations. The spring and autumn occurrence of smoke/haze outside of Chicago exhibits little spatially coherent trend for the study period. Chicago's spring visibility improved slightly during 1950–80 and was accompanied by a stronger decrease in the number of smoke/haze days than occurred for summer. Autumn is the season in which Chicago visibility has degraded most in the last three decades, even though the concurrent reduction in the frequency of smoke/haze has exceeded that of summer and spring. The winter results differ substantially from those for the other seasons. The 1950–80 winter visibility trends for individual stations range between a moderate decrease and a noticeable improvement, and are associated with strong reductions in smoke/haze frequency. These favorable changes are greatest at Chicago. Superimposed on them are 1) strong visibility maxima and smoke/haze minima during the mid-1950s and mid-1960s at most stations, 2) marked visibility degradation and increased smoke/haze occurrence outside of Chicago (especially in northwestern Illinois) in the late 1960s, and 3) some improvement in that situation in the early 1970s, followed by renewed deterioration. The extra-Chicago annual results are determined by the similar patterns for summer (especially), spring and autumn. Their Chicago counterparts are the product of larger season-to-season variation, and accordingly reflect winter results to a greater extent.

Ghana has a long fishing tradition, including industrial fishing. After many of the countries where Ghanaian fleets were actively fishing declared an Exclusive Economic Zone in the 1980s, the distant-water fleet of Ghana returned to its home waters, precipitating a collapse of some local stocks. While official catches reported to the FAO document this decline, the catches of other sectors (artisanal, subsistence, and recreational fishing) were not reported, their contribution to the livelihoods of Ghanaians was simply not documented, and their impact on fish stocks overlooked. Herein, total catches were estimated at 20.8 million tonnes between 1950 and 2010 compared to 11.8 million tonnes reported to the FAO. Subsistence catches, notably from coastal lagoons represented the bulk of unreported catches and seemed to have increased overall during this period, while the artisanal and large-scale sector catches decreased. Furthermore, the economic contribution of artisanal fisheries to Ghana is declining mainly due to use of non-sophisticated technology and activities of industrial fisheries making already poor communities poorer while industrial (particularly tuna) fisheries are increasing their profitability margin due to high technology being adopted and operating in less exploited parts of the continental shelf of Ghana. Accurate catch statistics and a better understanding of the contribution of the marine fisheries sector are needed for sustainable management of the fishing industry in Ghana and its contribution to the Ghanaian economy.

Foreign distant-water fishing fleets expanded quickly during the last 15 yr and in some ocean areas accounted for a larger portion of the coastal fishery resources harvest than neighboring coastal nations. Extention of national jurisdiction sharply decreased these activities. Catch and fishing effort limitations imposed by coastal states were of particular concern for foreign fleets. To attenuate adverse effects of these restrictions, distant-water fishing operators are considering three basic and mutually complementing solutions: better utilization of their own coastal resources until now frequently neglected, shifting a part of their fleets to the open ocean fishing operations, and continuing highly restricted and reorganized fisheries in coastal zones of other nations. Fishing activities within the 200-mile economic zone involve utilization of surplus quotas allocated by coastal states, quicker development of joint venture operations with coastal partners, increased purchases of fresh fish from local fishermen, and transfer of technology and know-how mainly to the developing coastal countries. Supplies of goods and services are also accepted by foreign fleets in exchange for access rights to the marine living resources of the coastal nations.However, all these adjustments of foreign fleets are considered an intermediate stage of the long-run trend in which the coastal state will be able to develop the resources without substantial participation of foreign fishermen. This trend is analyzed in the North Pacific distant-water fisheries development during recent years. Key words: distant-water fishing fleets, world fisheries, foreign fishery activities, 200-mile economic zone, marine fishery resources utilization, management of foreign fleets, quota allocations, North Pacific marine fisheries

Summary. — The awareness of the importance of data quality and homogeneity issues in the correct detection of climate change has increased rapidly in the last few years. Most of the contributions have been addressed to upper air data, however errors and inhomogeneities also concern surface ones. At surface level it is often assumed that such inhomogeneities have random distribution and that, considering a sufficiently large number of series, average records with negligible bias can be obtained. This assumption is likely to be correct if global or hemispheric averages are considered, but it may not be correct at a regional scale. The aim of the work is a rigorous reconstruction of the Italian climate for the last centuries (the longest series start in the late 1700s), with particular attention to the identification of spurious non-climatic signals introduced by changing instruments and methods in the measurement procedures. A data set of 111 precipitation series, 48 minimum and maximum temperature series and 67 mean temperature series was set up, together with the information about the station history (metadata). The records were subjected to a detailed quality control and homogenisation procedure that was extensively supported by a large metadata availability. The series were grouped by means of Principal Component Analysis and regional average records were obtained and analysed for trends. Trend analysis was performed on seasonal and annual basis by means of the progressive Mann-Kendall statistics and the progressive analysis of the linear regression coefficients. A comparison between the homogenized and the original series and the preliminary results of the analysis are presented. Particular emphasis is given to stress the importance of data homogenisation in the correct detection of long-term trends. PACS 92.60.Ry – Climatology. PACS 92.60.Jq – Water in the atmosphere (humidity, clouds, evaporation, precipitation). PACS 92.60.Wc – Weather analysis and prediction. PACS 01.30.Cc – Conference proceedings.

The Northwest Atlantic stock of Atlantic mackerel Scomber scombrus is distributed from Cape Hatteras to Newfoundland and migrates great distances on a seasonal basis. Atlantic mackerel are sensitive to changes in temperature, preferring water greater than 5°C. Annual changes in the winter and early-spring distributions of Atlantic mackerel were investigated using satellite imagery, research trawl surveys, geographical information systems, and spatial and standard statistical analyses. During the past 40-plus years (1968–2008), the distribution of the stock has shifted about 250 km to the north and east. Also, a change has occurred in the depth distribution of the stock, from deeper off-shelf locations to shallower on-shelf ones. Areal and bathymetric changes in distribution are correlated with interannual temperature variability and gradual warming. These results have implications for U.S. commercial and recreational mackerel fisheries because, despite the current high abundance of the stock, the changes in distribution will probably make it more difficult to find and catch Atlantic mackerel in certain areas in the future.

Faced with contraction and decline, Britain’s distant-water fishery needed to revise its operations and seek new opportunities. This chapter examines diversification post-1976. In home waters, narrators reveal involvement in the 1970s south-west England mackerel fishing boom; experimental fishing for alternative exploitable species off the British coast and transferring into coastal fishing or into the emerging North Sea gas and oil industry. Further afield, globalisation and the growth of Exclusive Economic Zones saw Hull trawlermen and firms supporting the expansion of overseas fisheries, working in the global oil industry and taking a key role in developing a new British fishery around the Falkland Islands. Narrators describe sunshine, free time and voyages that no longer started and finished at Hull’s fish dock. But they also convey precarity, uncertain payment and dangerous scenarios. In the home port, Hull had survived as a fish handling and processing centre by attracting foreign caught fish to its quay. In the decade after the Cod Wars, life in Hull’s long established distant-water fishery had changed beyond recognition. In 1983, the revised common fisheries policy was finally released to shape a new European fishery. Despite vigorous efforts to diversity, for many trawling firms it was too late and only two continued to operate beyond 1986.

Growing crops for automobile fuel is a major activity of industrial agriculture in the twenty-first century. Yet the history of biofuels, especially outside the United States, remains surprisingly little known. Jennifer Eaglin's Sweet Fuel does a significant service for agricultural historians by documenting a key era in biofuels history: Brazil's national alcohol fuel program. In 1975, Brazil launched a National Ethanol Program, or Proálcool, to supplement, and later replace, gasoline with alcohol distilled from sugarcane. Sweet Fuel describes the program's origins, its evolution, and its unanticipated consequences for Brazil's environment and agrarian labor relations.Proálcool's roots were planted in the 1930s when Brazil's government propped up the ailing sugar sector just as it had previously done for coffee. President Getúlio Vargas mandated a 5 percent mixture of alcohol in gasoline. The 1960s and 1970s were dominated by a military dictatorship and modernization of Brazil's economy. Large sugar producers like São Paulo's Biagi family took advantage of this era to expand and modernize. Yet this era's focus was on producing sugar for the international export market, rather than domestic ethanol. When the 1973 oil crisis drove up prices, however, Brazil's reliance on imported oil caused an economic crisis. Alcohol fuel offered a way to offset domestic oil consumption while also supporting sugar producers.The Proálcool program developed in two phases. First, in 1975 President Ernesto Geisel mandated a 20 percent ethanol mixture and set a target to produce three billion liters of ethanol by 1980. Eaglin focuses on the Biagi's Santa Elisa mill to demonstrate how large, industrialized sugar barons dominated the Proálcool program. Proálcool's second phase shifted from supplementing gasoline with ethanol to a crash program to fully replace gasoline with alcohol. Key to this phase was the all-ethanol car, a Brazilian engineering triumph that hit the roads in 1977.As ethanol production increased under Proálcool, pollution from vinasse (nutrient-rich wastewater from sugarcane distillation) became a national problem. Old laws on the books were supposed to regulate vinasse pollution, but enforcement was limited and most producers ignored the regulations with impunity. Facing atrocious pollution levels, municipalities tried to crack down on producers who dumped vinasse into rivers beginning in the 1950s. There was some success, but without stronger state or national regulation, producers often evaded local enforcement. Eaglin details the shifting agencies tasked with regulating vinasse pollution, calling them “acronyms of confusion” (105). Finally, in 1978 the national government officially banned dumping. Most vinasse was then stored in large retention ponds, which Eaglin calls “lakes of sacrifice” (120).Proálcool also caused labor strife in the agro-industrial sugarcane regions of São Paulo. Sweet Fuel offers good background on the shift from permanent to temporary labor in Brazil's cane fields during the second half of the twentieth century. Describing the grueling, dangerous work of cutting cane by hand, Eaglin paints a striking contrast between Proálcool's modern goals and its reliance on exhausting hand labor well into the 1980s. When growers tried to intensify production in 1984, workers struck and burned cane fields. Initially, workers won many concessions, though their implementation was erratic.Proálcool sputtered through the late 1980s and 1990s. Bad harvests led to worry that ethanol supplies would not meet demand, while cheap imported oil weakened the program's original justification. Throughout the 1990s, ethanol advocates focused on the fuel's environmental benefits. Despite new green rhetoric, however, problems of air and water pollution remained significant. Proálcool limped to its end in the late 1990s as Brazil was buffeted by high inflation and neoliberal reforms that framed Proálcool's subsidies as unaffordable. Brazilian ethanol rebounded in the early 2000s, however, with the launch of flex-fuel cars that allowed drivers to choose either gasoline or ethanol depending on price and preference. And as global concern over greenhouse gas emissions increased, sugarcane ethanol's value as a fuel with lower emissions than gasoline was celebrated worldwide.A great strength of Sweet Fuel is simply introducing Brazil's ethanol program to English-language readers. It is a story that anyone interested in modern agro-industrial development and the imbrication of agriculture and energy during the twentieth century should know. Eaglin also establishes that Proálcool and the problems of ethanol production had origins before the 1970s energy crisis. It is a helpful reminder of long-term continuities in Brazil's sugarcane sector, although focusing on the decades before the 1970s at times shortchanges what did actually change under the Proálcool program.Sweet Fuel concludes with what Eaglin argues are Proálcool's lessons for energy transitions more broadly. For example, Eaglin emphasizes that turning agriculture into an energy source brings the problem of spatially unequal costs and benefits to farming. City dwellers benefit from cleaner air while maintaining car-dependent lifestyles. But the agro-industrial countryside bears the costs in the form of polluted water and air. I enjoyed these lessons and found them interesting tools of comparison. But agricultural historians who balk at prescriptive history might be less enthusiastic, especially since many of the lessons are aimed at energy systems more than agriculture. Nonetheless, Sweet Fuel has begun a much-needed conversation on biofuels' past, present, and likely future.