The North Atlantic Fisheries, 1100-1976 - University of Hull

is also apparent, few authors having attempted to place their particular
subjects in a national, let alone, international, comparative setting. The
net result of these shortcomings is that a rigorous, comprehensive history
of the British fisheries has yet to be written.
The present paper draws upon the available literature to sketch an
outline of the development of sea fishing in the British Isles in the six
centuries prior to 1976. It considers the commercial sea fishing
operations of the inhabitants of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland in
the North Atlantic. Disregarded are river and estuarial catches, the
exploitation of shellfish, and the fisheries prosecuted from Britain’s
overseas colonies. Whaling, as a producer of oil rather than food, is also
neglected. The chronological bounds of the paper extend from the late
fourteenth century to 1976, with a division drawn in the mid-nineteenth
century when the conveyance inland of fresh fish heralded the greatest of
the many watersheds in the history of British fishing. While the
contributions of social and political historians are recognised, a largely
economic approach is adopted, with fishing treated as an industry rather
than a way of life or a factor in international relations. The paper
considers the historiography of this broad subject and concludes with
some tentative suggestions as to the chief weaknesses in the literature.
Limited Markets
A petition was laid before Edward III in 1376, complaining that:
where in creeks and havens of the sea there used to be plenteous fishing, to the profit
of this Kingdom, certain fishermen for several years past have subtily contrived an
instrument called ‘wondyrechoun’ made in the manner of an oyster dredge, but
which is considerably longer, upon which instrument is attached a net so close
meshed that no fish be it ever so small which enters therein can escape, but must stay
and be taken ... By which instrument in many places, the fishermen take such
quantity of small fish that they do not know what to do with them ... . 198
As well as serving as a convenient departure point for the present survey,
this first recorded reference to trawling in British waters highlights
various features of the country’s medieval and early modern fisheries. It
illustrates quite clearly the evidential problem facing fishing historians,
for it is essentially an isolated piece of information which offers little
indication as to how widespread was the use of the wondyrechoun, let
alone any measure of the significance of trawling at this time. Incidental,
198 Alward, Sea Fisheries, xx.
122