Historical Fishing Events/Development
Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Ocean since 1864,
Up through the 21st Century
(Fisheries Science Took Root, and the World's Oceans Were Fully Colonized)
Be Patient, the Timeline is Loading, and large (~200k) File:
| Date | Location | Event | Societal/Ecological Consequence | References |
| To 21st Century | To Earlier History | History of Observation Systems Diving Gear and Exploration FAO Fisheries Publications: |
Statement _ Garret Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons" | |
| Search | Fisheries Information Service Headliners |
– FISHBASE – Information Online ECOPATH/ECOSIM Information/Software |
PacificSharkResearchCenter Click on Life History Table to Access the Most Realistic What We Do/Don't Know InfoBase |
LandedValues @ 42 Japanese Ports |
| 1864 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | First salmon cannery open on Columbia River | Quinn/Trager #2 |
| 1864 | California | First salmon cannery opens Sacramento River, Washington in Yolo Co. | Hapgood, Hume and Co. pack 2000 cases.1/2 spoil | Trager #2 |
| 1864-1997 | Norway | G. O. Sars, son of Michael Sars, begins Norways first Sea Ranching efforts in 1865. In1884 a marine hatchery was set up in Flødevigen by Capt Gundar Dannevig, and in 1908 another in Trondheim, releasing 'seeds' of cod, plaice and lobster. The PUSH programme was a recent extension of Sars' original concepts. |
Repeated, updated studies of periodicities of both herring and cod fisheries indicate solar forcing is involved in the ocean changes that these ocean ecosystems respond to. Lunar Tidal Forcing on 18.6 year and several century time scales are also indicated, i.e., O.Pettersson 1914, - see also Wyatt link - to right |
wrote up a delightful historical perspective of these historical and more recent efforts. |
| 1865-66 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | Ý | Quinn |
| 1866 | Pacific coast | More Salmon canneries open on Columbia River | San Francisco salmon cannery opens | Trager |
| 1867-69 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | Ý | Quinn |
| 1867 | Sitka, Alaska | "Seward's Folly" purchase of Alaska from Russia | 2 cents/acre - from Failing Russian Business/Natives? | McDougall |
| 1870s-1880s | Sweden | Reports by Axel Ljungman on the changing fortunes of the herring fisheries along Sweden's west coast listed the various posed causes, including solar cycles - after Schwabe. | Sweden's herring fisheries were callled 'periodical' because they only lasted from 20 to 80 years, with intervals of 60 to 100 (average 70 years) when North Sea herring did not enter the Kattegat, or visit Sweden's coast. |
Tim Wyatt "Long-Term trends in Norwegian cod fisheries - the pioneers" |
| 1871-1879 | GLOUCESTER | 82 Cod Schooners/ Crews lost in Gales | From 1830-1900 ~3,800 fishermen died from this one port, >2X total US casualties in War of 1812 | Kurlansky |
| 1871 | USA | The United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, formed on February 9th is the first federal agency concerned with natural resources issues | 1st U.S. Fish Commissioner, Spencer F. Baird, selects Woods Hole as site of the nation's first fisheries laboratory | US Fisheries Historical Timeline |
| 1871 | USA | The United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, engages fish culturist seth Green to transport newly hatched Hudson River shad from Rochester, NY, across the continent to Tehama, Calif., where they are released into the Sacramento River. | Nearly 2/3 of the fry survive the 7 day trip, and witthin 9 years will be spawning in Oregon's Umpoua and Coos Rivers - starting a new industry. They are eventually caught, processed, sold, and often sent back to the East Coast, as the shad there decline due to industrialization and related pollution, etc. | Trager |
| 1871 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | Ý | Quinn |
| 1871 | North America | Halifax Fisheries Commission created | Awards Britain $4.5 million for US fishing rights | Trager |
| 1871 | Arctic | Early Winter | Whaling Fleet lost/crews saved | Trager |
| 1871 | USA | US Fisheries Commission created | President Grant names Spencer Baird - Director | Trager |
| 1872 | Plymouth, U.K. | HMS Challenger Expedition | Age of Scientific Exploration of Seas Begins |
Challenger Logs |
| 1872-73 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content | Caviedes |
| 1873-74 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | No. India/China/ Drought/GreatFamine/ 5 million die | Quinn/Trager |
| 1874 | Russia/Siberia | Russia ended "Official Colonization" of Siberia/Pacific | Russian-America Co. lost interest/Alaskan fur bearers decimated | McDougall |
| 1875-76 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content | Caviedes |
| 1876 | USA | U.S. Fish Commission founded by an Act of Congress in 1876 - motivated by the eminent collapse of the New England Cod stocks. | So what has changed? The North Atlantic Cod Stocks Bloomed and went away twice in the intervening 100 or so years. - "A frustrating aspect of US Fisheries Management is that these facts are ignored." | US History/WE Evans |
| 1876-78 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | Greatest recorded famine kills 10s of million Chinese | Quinn/Trager #2 |
| 1877 | Vancouver. BC | First commercial herring fished in region | 75 tons, soon raised to 500 tons | Trager |
| 1878 | Pacific wide | ENSO warm event | Substantial records of climate anomalies | SOI |
| 1878 | Asia | Lingering drought/worst famine | 10 million Chinese/maybe twice as many die | Trager |
| 1878 | Alaska | 1st salmon cannery/Asian/Indian labor | Initiates major industry growth/major social changes | McD/Mitchell |
| 1878 | Swedish coast | Bohuslan herring bloom | Begin 19 year abundance period | Lindquist |
| 1878 | North Atlantic | Cod Fisheries Collapse | Periodic Collapse/Social Disaster | |
| 1879 | Atlantic/NEAsia | Nordenkiold/Vega/NE Passage | Sailing derided/Siberian Railroad justified/Witte | McDougall |
| 1879 | Wisconsin lakes | US Fish Commission plants carp | Resilient carp provide food resource | Trager |
| 1880-81 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | European crops fail, Indian crops eaten by rats | Quinn |
| 1880 | Juneau/Harris SE Alaska | Discover GOLD in Alaska "Panhandle" | Soon gone. Everyone moves on to Yukon | McDougall |
| 1880 | Alaska | Tlinkits act as Outfitters/Porters | Moving "miners" from Juneau to Klondike Boundary -Tlinkits made more $/day than fishing | Mitchell |
| 1883 | Washington State | RailRoad reaches Puget Sound | A decade after North Pacific's Jaye Cooke bankrupted trying | McDougall |
| 1883 |
New Jersey, Maryland |
North American lobster catch reaches an all time high of 130 million lbs, but oil refineries started fouling the coastal ocean - and they begin to declines, soon to be followed by declines off Maine and Massachusetts |
Maryland oyster catches catch reaches nearly 15 million bushels.
910,000 shad fry freom the East Coast are planted in the Columbia River... where only the roe is popular |
Trager |
| 1883 | Cambridge, UK | "I believe, then, that the cod fishery, the herring fishery, the pilchard fishery, the mackerel fishery, and probably all the great sea fisheries, are inexhaustible; that is to say, that nothing we do seriously affects the number of the fish. And any attempt to regulate these fisheries seems consequently, from the nature of the case, to be useless." |
Meanwhile, modern NGO spokespersons point out - and like lemmings chase one another over the brink repeating - only this small part of his original, quite thoughtfull statement - as they clearly have never read the whole thing... Of course Huxley had earlier qualified this statement bys setting up his context a few sentences before: "...in relation to our present modes of fishing..." Steam trawlers were introduced in the 1890s... and Changed the Game |
Read for yourself: TH Huxley's Inaugural Speech - Clark University The alternative perspective was provided in a statement by Edwin Ray Lankester: "It is a mistake to suppose that the place of fish removed on a particular fishing ground is immediately taken by some grand total of fish, which are so numerous in comparison with man's depredations as to make his operations in this respect insignificant," said Lankester. "If man removes a large proportion of these fish from the areas which they inhabit, the natural balance is upset." |
| 1884-85 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | Worst Flood in Kansas History/>100 die | Quinn/Trager |
| 1884 | US Pacific Coast | Soft shelled clam introduced | Steamer clams provide for another industry | Trager |
| 1885 | Eastern Seaboard | Lobster landings peak at 130 million lbs | New Jersey shores fouled by oil refineries | Trager |
| 1886-87 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content | Caviedes |
| 1887 | Newfoundland | Norwegian Envoys Jens Dahl, Inspector of Salt Water Fisheries, and Adolph Nielsen Assistant Inspector of Fisheries from Sandefjord, visited newly formed Newfoundland Fisheries Commission, to discuss methods to combat declining fisheries landings. | Discussed cod artificial propagation techniques developed by GO Sars from 1864, adopted by Captain Gunder Dannevig, founder of the Flødevigen hatchery at Arendal, Norway, in 1882, which produced its first cod yolk sac fry two years later.The Dildo Island cod hatchery was built in 1889, and despite sucesses, the facility was not funded in 1897. |
M. BAKER, A.B. DICKINSON AND C.W. SANGER (c)1992 Originally published in the Newfoundland Quarterly, vol. LXXXVII, no. 2 (Spring 1992), 25-32, 35 |
| 1888 | Pacific wide | ENSO warm event | Substantial records of climate anomalies | SOI/Quinn |
| 1889 | Eastern Tropical Pacific USA | ENSO cool event Remarkably mild winter | Ice shortages stimulate development of lce Plants across Nation | SOI/Trager #2 |
| 1889 | Maine | Lobster catch peaks | 24 million pounds | Trager |
| 1889 | Eastern USA | Hudson shad fishery peaks | Fishery begins a long-term decline | Trager |
| 1890 | Alaska | Now has 38 salmon canneries | Italian/Scandanavian fish/Chinese cut/pack fish | Trager |
| 1890 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content | Caviedes |
| 1891 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO warm event | Wet Period Coatal Peru | Caviedes |
| 1893 | Eastern Tropical Pacific/USA | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content | SOI |
| 1895 | USA | Massachusetts/211.5 lb cod caught | Columbia River salmon peak pack/634,000 cases | Trager |
| 1896-97 | Pacific wide | ENSO warm event | Indian wheat crop fails, famine results | SOI/Trager #2/Caviedes |
| 1897 | Northeastern USA | New Jersey/NewYork/ 1.2 million lbs Sturgeon | Hudson River "Albany Beef" reduced by pollution | Trager |
| 1898 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content | Caviedes |
| 1899-1900 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | 1st Colombia River salmon pack under BumbleBee label | Quinn/Trager #2 |
| 1899 | Northwestern US | Columbia River Packers Association forms | CRPA acquires ships/ for transport of building/canning material to Alaska | Trager |
| 1900 | World | Population=1.6 billion | Tanton | |
| 1900 | British Isles | westerly circulation increases | Ocean production trend increases | Lamb |
| 1900 | Washington state | Fred.Weyerhauser purchases RR land | NW Forestry Industry begins in earnest | McDougall |
| 1902 | Copenhagen | International Council for the Exploration of the Sea | Created to stimulate cooperation in marine and fisheries science | ICES |
| 1901-02 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | China/Cold wet Period | Quinn/Trager |
| 1903 | San Pedro, CA | White albacore tuna first put into cans | Canned tuna becomes a staple in American diet | Trager |
| 1903-04 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Coastal Peru Dry/cold | Caviedes |
| 1904-05 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | Albacore tuna packed in San Pedro California | SOI/Quinn/Trager #2 |
| 1905 | Korea Peninsula | Japanese Remove Russia from Region | End Russian "colonization" of Manchuria/Korea | McDougall |
| 1906 | Swedish coast | Bohuslan herring fails | End of 19 year abundance period | Lindquist |
| 1907 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | See below | Quinn |
| 1907 | Eastern Pacific Southern California | First tuna packed by Halfhill in San Pedro | Seasonal tropical tunas' migrations extended northward, and abundant albacore | Trager #2 |
| 1908 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Coastal Peru Dry/cold | Caviedes |
| 1910-11 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content | SOI/Caviedes |
| 1911-12 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño |
Yangtze river Floods/100,000 die Russia/China Drought/famine/millions affected |
SOI/Quinn/Nash/Trager |
| 1911 | Columbia River | Salmon catch peaks at 49 million lbs | This is never to be seen again | Trager |
| 1912 | Alaska | Libby, McNeill, Libby buy 14 canneries | Libby label on salmon after 1959 sale/fleet/canneries | Trager |
| 1913-14 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Europe in Drought | SOI/Trager#2 |
| 1914 | Norway | Johann Hjorth writes up early life history survival hypothesis | After years of debate with GO Sars, Hjorth adopts the concept that understanding cod and other fishes survival at younger stages is critical. | Climate/Fisheries References |
| 1914 | Sweden | Otto Pettersson, oceanographer links Climate, Lunar Tides and Solar System dynamics to fisheries and human history | His 1914 Monograph is adequate reason to defend observations that 900AD to1100AD open Arctic ocean allowed navigation that is unlikely today, hence the epoch was generally warmer than today's climate. | See Ed Sander's website Climate/Fisheries References |
| 1914 | Europe | World War I begins | Local agriculture declines - famines follow/ coastal US fishing-canning industries flourish | Trager |
| 1914-15 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | Van Camp Fish cannery begins developing California albacore fleet /converts American diet | Quinn/Trager #2 |
| 1916 | Florida | Gulf Coast "Red Tide" bloom | Kills millions of fish/ Gymnodinium breve toxin | Trager |
| 1916 | California | California Packing Incorporated | $16 million underwrite/Wall Street/Del Monte/Calpak | Trager |
| 1917 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content | Sharp/McLain/Caviedes |
| 1917 | San Pedro, CA | French Sardine cannery opens | Bogdanovich pioneers iceboats/Starkist Seafood | Trager |
| 1917 | Russia | Baranov defines the basis of fisheries population biology in mathematical terms for the 1st time | Mathematics are introduced into descriptions of fisheries populations | Baranov, F.I. 1918. On the question of the biological basis of fisheries. Izv. Nauchno.-Issled.Iktiol. Inst. 1:81-128. (in Russian). |
| 1918-20 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | Albacore in Point Loma kelp beds sparks San Diego Tuna fishery | SOI/Quinn/Rose family records |
| 1918 | Eastern US | Lobster catch hits low | 33 million lbs/down from high 130 million lbs/1985 | Trager |
| 1918 | Iceland | Harbor seal dieoff | Extreme cold/pnuemonia | Bardson |
| 1919 | Pacific wide | ENSO warm event | Substantial records of climate anomalies | SOI |
| 1922 | San Pedro | Deflation/Wartime market collapses | Fish canning mergers/Van Camp Sea Food/White Star | Trager |
| 1923 | Seattle | International Pacific Halibut Commission | Created to stimulate cooperation in halibut fishery management | IPHC |
| 1923 | Japan | First full descriptions of the comparative anatomy and biology of scombroid fishes | This early study by Kishinouye begins the search for explanations for the many morphological distinctions amongst the tunas and mackerels - still ongoing | Kishinyoue, K. 1923. Contributions to the comparative study of the so-called scombroid fishes. J. Coll. Agric. Tokyo Imp. Univ. 8:293-475 |
| 1923 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | Greenland warming trend - 5C warmer1923-32 vs 1883-92 | Quinn |
| 1924 | So. California | Sardines up/albacore down | - Van Camp's declares Bankruptcy/Receivership | Trager |
| 1924 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content | Sharp/McLain/Caviedes |
| 1924 | San Pedro | Van Camp closes down | Sardine run sparks Van Camp recovery | Trager |
| 1925-1934 | North Atlantic | General warming trend begins | West Greenland Sea fisheries emerged | EllettBlindheim |
| 1925-26 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | Albacore fishery response - see Below | SOI/Quinn/Trager #2/Caviedes |
| 1925 | So. California | San Diego/San Pedro tuna pack peaks | 95,000/358,940 cases each, mostly albacore | Trager |
| 1925 | British Isles | Westerly circulation peaks | Ocean production/fishery increases | Lamb |
| 1926 | So. California | Albacore disappear from offshore | Industry shifts to tropical tuna yellowfin "Chicken of the Sea" "Doesn't turn red in the can" - 65,823 cases packed/ "Fancy" yellowfin tuna promoted to replace both white albacore and salmon on nation's pantry shelves | Trager #2 |
| 1927 | World | Population=2 billion | Population Clock | |
| 1927 | Japan | Professor Uda, describes the consequences of wind speed and direction on daily fishing sucesses | The world of fisheries science opens another door, through formalization of environmental monitoring in order to explain local daily fisheries performance | Uda, M. 1927. Relation between the daily catch statistical studies in the influence of cyclone upon the fishing. J. Imper. Fish. Inst. 23(3):80-88. |
| 1927 | California Coast | Sardines Bloom | Frank Van Camp borrows money to restart canning line, for sardines/ Pays back loans/debts within year | Trager |
| 1927-28 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content | SOI/Caviedes |
| 1929-31 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | Long Drought Begins in Great Plains/Global Warming Peaks | SOI/Quinn/COADS |
| 1930 | Alaska | Last Square Rigger run to canneries | Summer labor and supplies shipped via steamers | Trager |
| 1932 | ENSO Warm Event/Florida | Records/Proxies of El Niño | Worst Red Tide since 1916 off Florida causes massive fish kills | Quinn / Trager #2 |
| 1933 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Coastal Peru Dry/cold | Caviedes |
| 1934-35 | Western USA | Dust storms/drought cripple farmers | Chicken more expensive than beef/farms decline | Trager |
| 1935 | UK - North Sea | Graham defines the theory of what happens when a fishery population is exploited | Modern Fisheries exploitation science is born, as a means of explaining consequences of fishing effort on natural populations | Graham, G.M. 1935. Modern theory of exploiting a fishery and its implication to North Sea trawling. J Cons. 10:264-274. |
| 1935 | Monterey, CA | Sardine landings peak | Cental/Southern California sardine catch 760,000 tons | CF&G |
| 1937 | NW USA | Bonneville dam opened | Salmon runs impeded by Power Dams | Trager |
| 1937-38 | USA | Major flooding in SE USA | Congress - Flood Control Act/public work/rivers/harbors | Trager |
| 1937-39 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content/ US Congress Passes Flood Control Act |
GDS/Caviedes |
| 1938 | Columbia River | Fish ladders implemented | Salmon runs lost to electrical power generation | Trager |
| 1938 | Oregon | Albacore are discovered off coast | Salmon fishermen turn to tuna/Bumble Bee/Astoria | Trager |
| 1939-41 |
Europe/Pacific |
World War II begins |
Spreads to Asian Pacific |
News |
| 1939 | New York, NY | Fulton Fish Market opens | Fishmongers handled 250 million lbs first year | Trager |
| 1939 | UK - North Sea | Graham introduces the asymptotic curve estimation phenomenon into modeling fisheries | The modeled consequences of fishing at both high and low fish population densities with varying effort is described | Graham, G.M. 1939. The sigmoid curve and the overfishing problem. Rapp. P.-v. Réun. Cons. Int. Explor. Mer. 110(2):15-20. |
| 1939-1941 | Pacific wide | Major ENSO warm event | Substantial records of climate anomalies | Quinn |
| 1940 | British Isles | westerly circulation declines | Ocean production decreases | Lamb |
| 1941 | Pearl Harbor | Japanese attack/WWII in Pacific | Unites Pacific State against Japanese expansion | McDougall |
| 1941 | Monterey, CA | Sardine catches decline, collapse | Wartime market increase demand/fleet capacity huge | Sharp |
| 1943-44 | ENSO Warm Event |
Records/Proxies of El Niño |
Drought/Famine/China/ Millions Starve | Quinn/Nash |
| 1945 | Alaska | Wakefield Deep Sea Trawlers/king crab | Develop freezing/processing to handle quantities of crab | Trager |
| 1945 | North Pacific | CRPA executive visits Japan | Japan contracted/deliver albacore to US packers | Trager |
| 1945 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Coastal Peru Dry/cold | Caviedes |
| 1945 | World War II ends | Rebuilding begins | UNDP and other AID agencies emerge | Trager |
| 1946 | West Coast Florida | Worst Red Tide bloom ever | Stimulates Fisheries Service to investigate Gymnodinium breves | Trager |
| 1946 | Philadelphia | Mrs. Paul's Kitchen frozen seafood | Frozen Deviled Crabs meet consumer needs | Trager |
| 1947 | Canada | Fred Fry's work initializes a series of lab studies that compare arrays of fish and other aquatic species. | The birth of ecologically transferable laboratory studies, Physiological Ecology and Limnology are converged. | Fry, F.E.J. 1947. Effects of environment on animal activity. Pub. Ontario Fish. Res. Lab. No.68 U. Toronto Studies, Biol. Ser. 55:1-52. |
| 1947 | Harvard | Information on age-specific mortality used to lay out mortality expectations by age groups of populations | No longer accepted that Mortality is Constant in population models | Deevey, E.S. 1947. Life tables for natural populations of animals. Quart. Rev. Biol. 22:283-314. |
| 1947-51 | Korea | US refuses troop removal from Korea | Anti-Communist Truman Doctrine/Japan rebuilt | McDougall |
| 1948 | Maine | Restocking effort for Maine rivers | Atlantic Sea Run Commission remove dams | Trager |
| 1949 | NW Atlantic | International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries | Atlantic Commission formed to address management | ICNAF |
| 1950 | World | Population=2.4 billion | Tanton | |
| 1950 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Coastal Peru Dry/cold | Caviedes |
| 1950 | North Atlantic | Total Landings regain prewar levels | European fisheries"recovery" stimulates management | Beverton/Holt |
| 1950 | Eastern Pacific Ocean | Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission created by convention | USA & Costa Rica 1st signatures | IATTC |
| 1950 | Peru | Guano/anchoveta fishing debate | Guano industry transition/anchoveta boom | Trager/Glantz |
| Early 1950s | Monterey, CA | Canneries dismantled and moved or sold to Peru | Fishing declines, focuses on salmon/squid/rockfish | Local history |
| 1950 | So. California | Some vessels/canneries from Monterey relocate | Fisheries for anchovy/mackerel/ seasonal tuna developed | CF&G |
| 1951-52 | ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño |
Asian Monsoon fails/drought/ Australia drought begins/livestock die Famine/Kansas-Missouri floods/200,000 homeless |
Quinn/Trager/Nash |
| 1952 | Chile/Peru/Ecuador | Declaration of Santiago | Extends jurisdiction to 200 miles vs US 12 mi/3 mi others | Trager |
| 1953 | Minor ENSO Warm Event | Records/Proxies of El Niño | Ý | Quinn |
| 1955 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content | Sharp/McLain/Caviedes |
| 1955 | Gloucester | Gorton's new freezer facility opens | 200 year old firm produces frozen fish products | Trager |
| 1955 | Antarctica | Crabeater seal dieoff | Huge population/mild climate/virus | Laws&Taylor |
| 1957-58 | Pacific wide | ENSO warm event | Substantial records of climate anomalies | Quinn |
| 1958 | Iceland | Extends fishing limits to 12 miles | Starts conflicts with British fishing fleet | Trager |
| 1958 | Global | Blue whale kill 6,908 | beginning end of whaling activities | |
| 1960 | US Coastal | Large Soviet fleet moves into coast | Herring/haddock fisheries decimated by foreign fleets | Trager |
| 1960 | Global | Fish cath reaches 40 million tons | This is twice the catch of 1950 | Trager |
| 1960 | Mississippi | Pollution kills millions of fish | Low oxygen levels due to eutrophication | Trager |
| 1961 | World | Population=3 billion | Population Clock | |
| 1960-61 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content | Sharp/McLain/Caviedes |
| 1961 | Iceland | Settle fishing dispute with Britain | Fishing rights over North Atlantic/Cod Wars continue | Trager |
| 1964 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content | Sharp/McLain/Caviedes |
| 1965-66 | Pacific wide | ENSO warm event | Substantial records of climate anomalies | Quinn |
| 1965-66 | West Africa | Trade winds decline/NAO shifts | Coastal fishing declines /Sahel rainfall declines | Freon/Wm Gray |
| 1965 | North Sea | Peak herring catch | Catch begins precipitous decline/overfished too | Glantz |
| 1965-67 | Gulf of Alaska | Halibut biomass lowest | Recruitment f(wind speed/dir/surf currents) | Parker |
| 1965 | USA | Washington enacts 5y/$25 million Restocking Program | Anadromous fish conservation effort | Trager |
| 1965 | Arkansas | Catfish farming takes off | Farmers raise fish to supplement field crop incomes | Trager |
| 1966 | USA | Endangered Species Protection Act | Precedent setting legislation/global protection | Congress |
| 1966 -69 | USA | Stratton Commission RoundtableDiscussions Begin - Resulting in the Report "Our Nation and The Sea - the final report of the Commission on Marine Science, Engineering, and Resources, |
The Stratton Commission was able to argue persuasively in 1969 that it spoke at a "time for decision." |
Congress |
| 1966 | Alaska | King crab fishery peaks | Central fishing area begins decline | Trager |
| 1966 | Global | Food crisis | Production drops /Africa/Lat.America/FarEast | Trager |
| 1967-68 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content | Sharp/McLain/Caviedes |
| 1967 | USA | Fishermen's Protective Act passed | Reimburses fishermen's fines/losses due to seizures | Congress |
| 1968-69 | Pacific wide | ENSO warm event | Eastern Pacific warming trend begins | Sharp/McLain |
| 1968 | USA | 58% of US fish imported | US Dept Interior/15 million fish killed/pollution | Trager |
| 1969 | Wisconsin | Lake/Stream DDT concentration 20ppm | Fish measured to contain <1 ppm DDT - controversy | Trager |
| 1969 | Atlantic Ocean - Mediterranean | International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas | Member nations commit support/Data | ICCAT |
| 1969 | North Atlantic & North Sea | David Cushing formulates the 'Match - Mismatch' Theory of early life history success for sea fishes that links spawning and spring bloom timing. | Implicit
in this Theory is that variability in timing of plankton production
leads to variability in larval mortality and hence possibly year class
strength. If year class strength is measured as abundanceof adult fish,
it will of course be a function of the sum of the mortalities
experienced during the different pre–recruit periods. The literature here is somewhat conflicting. |
Hans Chr. Eilertsen, The
Cushing Match-Mismatch hypothesis: can |
| 1970 | Egypt | Aswan Dam completed | Seasonal flood cycle stops/ coastal sardines all but disappear | Trager |
| 1970-71 | Eastern Tropical Pacific | ENSO cool event | Upper ocean low heat content | Sharp/McLain |
| 1970 | West Greenland |
