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After 1950 traditional herring fisheries were revolutionized by a new technique: sonar, power block, larger nets and bigger boats. As a result all major herring stocks in the North East Atlantic Ocean collapsed. The most dramatic decline was that of the Atlanto-Scandian stock between Iceland and Norway from millions of tons to the border of extinct...
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... In fact, Atlantic herring represents the 19% of the total catches in the EU on average (EUROSTAT, 2020), which have been relatively stable during the last two decades. Nevertheless, Atlantic herring stocks in the FAO area 27 collapsed in the 70s and the volume of catches declined from 2 million tons in 1966 to 20 thousand tons in 1971 (Sigurdsson, 2006). A change in the time horizon from the period (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018) to would surely imply different results. ...
The main objective of this paper is to perform a risk analysis for the key commercial fish species in the FAO area 27 by means of a bundle of financial left-tail risk indicators, including Value-at-Risk (VaR), Expected Shortfall (ES) and Expectiles (EX), and panel data of catches (Qit) to measure the left-tail risk of catches (LTRi); an empirical and probabilistic measure of the worst-case reduction of catches resulting from huge negative shocks. LTRi can be useful, not only to classify the fish species according to their risk level, but also, using the appropriate weights, to infer the risk to any other aggregation level such as fleet, fishing community or fishing country. In this paper, we are employing our species level (LTRi) estimations to calculate the left-tail risk of catches of the EU fishing countries (LTRj), a country level proxy variable for the risk inherent to the fishing activity itself.
... Herring populations commonly experience collapses and recoveries, which directly influence herring fisheries and have direct implications for national economies (e.g., Sigurdsson 2006). Investigations of 64 herring populations detected the importance of local drivers in formation of R and suggested that generally complex and uncertain processes are responsible for the relationship between SSB and R (Trochta et al. 2020). ...
Scientific interest in the dynamics of fish recruitment dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. Since then, several studies have shown that the environment may have a stronger effect on recruitment (R) compared to that of the spawning stock biomass (SSB). By combining a suite of methods designed to detect the nonlinear, nonstationary and interactive relationships, we have re-evaluated the potential drivers and their interactions responsible for the multiannual dynamics of the recruitment dynamics of the Gulf of Riga (Baltic Sea) spring spawning herring (Clupea harengus membras) population at the longest time-span to date (1958–2015) allowing coverage of variable ecosystem conditions. R was affected significantly by prey density and the severity of the first winter. Although SSB was not a good predictor of R, adding interaction with SSB significantly improved the model, hence the effect of the two environmental variables on R was modulated by SSB. While temporal changes in the environment–R relationship were generally gradual, several abrupt changes were evident in the strength of these relationships. In addition, nonstationary, linear and nonlinear relationships were observed.
... But the era was not an adventure for the herring itself: the transboundary herring stock that supplied this wealth and independence collapsed in the 1960s. A Bkiller spike^in catches peaking at two million tons, and massive extractions of juvenile fish from spawning grounds in Norway's fjords, collapsed the herring populations (Hamilton et al. 2004, 327;Sigurðsson 2006;Holm 2012). When a fast-moving shift in the Icelandic current made the waters too cold to supply swarms of zooplankton, the herring factories in the north met with rapid decline (Hamilton et al. 2004) (see Fig. 4). ...
Industrial fishing has shaped Iceland for centuries, serving as social mortar, fueling Icelandic independence, and underscoring its geopolitical strategies. With the reorganization and enclosure of fishing in the twentieth century, however, rural coastal communities increasingly turned to tourism as a significant source of revenue. This transitional process is not straightforward, raising complex questions of shifting cultural and social identity for these communities. This paper represents a pilot study of maritime heritage discourses from museums, tours, and attractions in urban Reykjavík and in remote locations in northern Iceland. We examine these different discourses and the local dimensions of social change they perform or communicate through a lens of political ecology and maritime cultural heritage studies.
... During the warm period, large quantities of herring occupied waters around Iceland and this fishery dominated the Icelandic economy (Vilhjálmsson, 1997). The collapse of the herring fishery during the cold period caused great hardships for Icelandic fishers and was a major blow to the country's economy (Sigurdsson, 2006). ...
Following rapid cooling in the 1960s, much of the North Atlantic Ocean was characterized by a cold period during the 1970s and 1980s. This cold period was part of the multidecadal variability in sea surface temperatures known as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation or AMO, which has a period of 60–80 years. During this cold period, below average air and sea temperatures predominated, increased ice cover was observed in those northern regions with seasonal sea ice, and evidence was found of reduced Atlantic inflow into the Northeast Atlantic Ocean. The ecological responses included a reduction in primary production and geographic shifts in zooplankton species. Also, there was a general southward expansion of arctic and boreal fish species and a retreat of the temperate species. Major fish stocks such as Atlantic cod off Greenland and Labrador/northern Newfoundland, as well as the Norwegian spring-spawning herring, collapsed commercially. These collapses were partly driven by climate-induced declines in growth rates and recruitment survival, as well as fishing. In contrast, in the more southern range of Atlantic cod, such as the North Sea, the opposite response occurred as the cool conditions led to improved growth rates and higher abundance. Long-term measurements in the English Channel documented the replacement of several warm-water species with more northern cold-water species. Benthic and nearshore species also underwent distributional shifts and changing abundances. Comparisons with the responses to the warm periods suggest that following the cold period of the 1970s and 1980s, the ecosystem in the 1990s and 2000s returned to conditions akin to what they were in the previous warm period of the 1930s–1950s. However, there were some notable exceptions, such as the continued low abundance of Atlantic cod off West Greenland and Labrador/northern Newfoundland. © International Council for the Exploration of the Sea 2018. All rights reserved.
... But the era was not an adventure for the herring itself: the transboundary herring stock that supplied this wealth and independence collapsed in the 1960s. A Bkiller spike^in catches peaking at two million tons, and massive extractions of juvenile fish from spawning grounds in Norway's fjords, collapsed the herring populations (Hamilton et al. 2004, 327;Sigurðsson 2006;Holm 2012). When a fast-moving shift in the Icelandic current made the waters too cold to supply swarms of zooplankton, the herring factories in the north met with rapid decline (Hamilton et al. 2004) (see Fig. 4). ...
results of a pilot study of fishery to tourism landscape transformations in Iceland through a political ecology lens; herring era museums; national identity and geopolitics of "cod wars"
... The model simply states that the relative change in effort each year is proportional to the profit margin the year before above (or below) the threshold. Estimation of this model with the data in the (Sigurdsson, 2006b). ...
40 years ago the Atlanto-Scandian herring stock collapsed with severe consequences for Iceland´s monotonic economy at that time. Two years ago the international credit crisis brought the country´s largest banks to insolvency, which shocked the whole economy with butterfly effects in neighbouring countries. The paper begins with an overview of the Icelandic economy, then models the herring collapse and finally describes and compares the effects, negative and positive, of these two crises from an economic, sociological and political point of view. After 1968 gross domestic product and currency rate decreased, but unemployment, emigration and inflation increased. Some economic indicators recovered surprisingly soon because of new resources, diversified industries, an extension of the exclusive economic zone and improved fisheries management, but high inflation and political instability persisted. The immediate aftermath of 2008 is similar, however starker, but no windfall recovery is to be expected. The fisheries will reach culmination, although added value is potential, and exploitation of renewable energy resources may take their place as the most important industry. Rapid globalization of Iceland´s financial activities during the last decade created complications and controversies over foreign debts, which could have long-lasting impeding consequences and delay the necessary reconstruction of fisheries management, industrial companies and social institutions. An attempt will be made to predict the uncertain future economic development according to national and international statistics.
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1cKk4biU1p3jk --
Fisheries contribute to food and nutrition security, livelihoods, and poverty alleviation for billions of people globally. However, human-environmental interactions in fisheries are rarely assessed locally, regionally, and globally at the same time, limiting social-ecological resilience in fisheries management. We evaluated worldwide catches of a keystone forage fish (Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus) over 65 years (1950–2014); modeled local, regional, and global interactions among industrial, artisanal, subsistence, and recreational fishing sectors; and predicted future catches using a multifaceted and multilayered human-nature coupling framework for assessing social-ecological interactions within and across adjacent and distant fisheries (termed “metacouplings”). Across 17 exclusive economic zones (EEZs), catches by nations in their own EEZs (7.1 × 10⁷ metric tons [MT]) outweighed those in adjacent EEZs (5.3 × 10⁷ MT). However, adjacent-EEZ fishing was the largest-tonnage fishing type in more EEZs (53 %), reflecting the proximity of Northern/Western European fishing nations and regulations conducive to fishing in neighboring waters. Catches in distant (non-adjacent) EEZs were relatively small (1.2 × 10⁷ MT). Fishing-sector interactions were generally positive but notably negative for artisanal fishing, which declined with increasing industrial and recreational catches in five EEZs (29 %). Combined with projected declines in artisanal and subsistence catches in parts of Germany, Norway, and Sweden, metacoupling interactions could elicit harmful financial, food-supply, and food/nutrition security outcomes for small-scale fishers if metacouplings remain absent from management programs. However, quantitative and conceptual tools developed herein enable fisheries managers to identify where, when, and how to maximize positive and minimize negative metacoupling interactions and thereby ensure continued ecological, economic, nutritional, and sociocultural benefits for fisheries stakeholders, locally to globally.
