Abstract
Historical perspectives on fisheries and related human behaviour provide valuable information on fishery resources and their exploitation, helping to more appropriately set management targets and determine relevant reference levels. In this study we analyse historical fisheries and fish trade at the north-eastern Baltic Sea coast in the late 17th century. Local consumption and export together amounted to the annual removal of about 200 tonnes of fish from the nearby sea and freshwater bodies. The fishery was very diverse and exploited altogether one cyclostome and 17 fish species with over 90% of the catch being consumed locally. The exported fish consisted almost entirely of high-valued species with Stockholm (Sweden) being the most important export destination. Due to rich political history and natural features of the region, we suggest that the documented evidence of this small-scale fishery should be considered as the first quantitative summary of exploitation of aquatic living resources in the region and can provide a background for future analyses.
Highlights
Historical perspectives on fisheries and related human behaviour provide valuable information on living aquatic resources and their exploitation/consumption levels, and help to identify historical baselines and set quantitative targets for ecosystem-based management [1,2,3,4]
The aim of the current study is to provide a quantitative estimate of local fish catches from the surroundings of Narva during the second half of the 17th century, together with analysis of the monthly composition of the catch
As the peak season of the historical vendace trade corresponds to that of Lake Peipsi vendace fishery nowadays [42], traders of this fish were never involved in marine fish trade and the species was sold exclusively by Russian-speaking persons, we suggest that vendace originates from Lake Peipsi
Summary
Historical perspectives on fisheries and related human behaviour provide valuable information on living aquatic resources and their exploitation/consumption levels, and help to identify historical baselines and set quantitative targets for ecosystem-based management [1,2,3,4]. It is essential to broaden the time frame through which we look at fish populations and ecosystems dynamics [5]. Amongst others, this would help to identify patterns and types of fish populations and ecosystems response to various natural and anthropogenic forcings (e.g., [6,7]). With the gradual depletion of exploited anadromous and freshwater fish stocks in inland water bodies due to increasing number of urban consumers, local fisheries were forced to shift to use the marine fish resources in the coastal seas [8,11,12]. Along with near extirpations of western European populations of the most valuable anadromous fishes like Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and European sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) already by the first centuries of the second millennia [8,16,17], fishing pressure was gradually expanded to the more distant areas like Ireland, Scotland, and the Baltic Sea to obtain several high-prized coastal and/or migratory species [9,18]
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