Fisheries in History: the Tunny, the Herring and the Cod
From the earliest beginnings, there has always been more to fisheries than the discovery and capture of fish. C.M. Yonge studies how their processes have evolved around the world.
When he surveyed the shores and the shallower seas into which he might penetrate, early man must have been preoccupied with the possibilities of the food they contained.
Vast kitchen middens composed of the shells of oysters and other molluscs, with fish bones and similar remains, bear impressive witness to the extent he relied on fish.
In the words of a mid-Victorian writer, ‘Fish being more distinguished for the size of their heads than for the amount of brains lodged in them and affording consequently an easier capture than either beasts or birds, fell easy victims to the crafts and assaults of their arch-enemy, man.’
Palaeolithic gorges (pointed bone rods) preceded the more sophisticated neolithic hooks of shell, flint or bone in the capture of fish. Traps of stone and probably of wickerwork early appear, and then harpoons with detachable barbed heads made from reindeer antlers or horn.
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