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Norfish: English herring fishery, 1520-1790
Citable as data publication
Ivinson, J., Nicholls, J. and Holm, P. 2020. Norfish: English Herring Fishery 1520-1790. Dublin: TCD. https://doi.org/10.14284/492
Contact: Nicholls, John

Access data
Archived data
Availability: Creative Commons License This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Description
NorFish is a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant led by Prof Poul Holm in Trinity College Dublin, focuses on the premise that a 16th century shift in marine fish pricing and supply in conjunction with the Little Ice Age and lowering of sea temperatures not only rise to the North Atlantic Fish Revolution but also forms one of the first documented examples of the disrupting effects of globalisation and climate change. The project examines the role of the Fish Revolution for a range of inter-related aspects of North Atlantic history, with NorFish’s interdisciplinary team drawing on archaeology, history, cartography, geography, and ecology to develop interpretative frameworks that synthesise a broad spectrum of source data to assess the overall objective of the project. NorFish’s interdisciplinary team draws on archaeology, history, cartography, geography, and ecology to assess the objectives of the project more

The English herring fishery was active as an industry since at least medieval times and likely even earlier (Galloway 2017). The abundance of the annual herring migration from North to South along the East of England coast led to many fleets carrying out their fishing efforts in these productive waters during the herring season, including local English fishers. However, despite the clear engagement in the industry, there is very little archival evidence of actual statistical data that indicates specific catches, landings and import/export figures. Also, there is little indication of the level of domestic consumption for England. This lacuna makes any reasonable evaluation of the magnitude of the herring catch particularly difficult.

Scope
Themes:
Biology > Fish, Fisheries > Fish stocks/catches/taggings
Keywords:
Marine/Coastal, Archaeology, Catch/effort, Clupeoid fisheries, Herrings, History, Lowestoft, Observation, AN, North Atlantic, ANE, North Sea, ANE, United Kingdom, EurOBIS calculated BBOX, Clupeidae Cuvier, 1816

Geographical coverage
AN, North Atlantic [Marine Regions]
ANE, North Sea [Marine Regions]
ANE, United Kingdom Stations [Marine Regions]
English East Coast
EurOBIS calculated BBOX Stations
Bounding Box
Coordinates: MinLong: 2,7263; MinLat: 57,3757 - MaxLong: 2,7263; MaxLat: 57,3757 [WGS84]

Temporal coverage
1520 - 1790

Taxonomic coverage
Clupeidae Cuvier, 1816 [WoRMS]

Parameter
Occurrence of biota

Contributors
The University of Dublin, Trinity College; Centre for Environmental Humanitiesdata creator
Ivinson, Josh
Nicholls, John
Roskilde University (RUC)data creator
Holm, Poul

Related datasets
Published in:
EurOBIS: European Ocean Biodiversity Information System, more
OPI: Oceans Past Initiative

Project
NorFish: The North atlantic Fish Revolution: An Environmental History of the North Atlantic 1400-1700


Dataset status: Completed
Data type: Data
Data origin: Data collection
Metadatarecord created: 2021-07-05
Information last updated: 2021-07-08
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