Magnusson, Katarina and Dekker, Willem
(2021).
Economic development in times of population decline - a century of European eel fishing on the Swedish west coast.
ICES Journal of Marine Science. 78
, 185-198
[Research article]
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Abstract
The European eel stock is in a multi-decadal decline. When fishing yield diminished throughout Europe, the small-scaled fyke-net fishery for eel on the west coast of Sweden gradually increased. This contrary trend lasted from the early-1900s, until the 1990s when fishing restrictions eventually limited the catch. We identified the processes driving this aberrant historical development. Using data on the fisheries from 1914 to 2006, we analysed the relation of total landed quantities to stock abundance indices, weather conditions, technical development, and market indicators. No relation between landed volumes and abundance indices was found, but market price (inflation-adjusted) was clearly correlated. Weather and technical development had a minor influence on landed volumes. This indicates that the commercial eel fishery on the west coast developed due to increasing demand and increasing eel prices. We found no evidence that the local stock has been fully exploited, though the increasing catch must have gradually reduced the contribution to the international spawning stock. These results stress the importance of considering economic processes when interpreting historical catch data as a source of information on population size in stock assessments, and ultimately, understanding the collapse of the eel stock.
Authors/Creators: | Magnusson, Katarina and Dekker, Willem | ||||
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Title: | Economic development in times of population decline - a century of European eel fishing on the Swedish west coast | ||||
Series Name/Journal: | ICES Journal of Marine Science | ||||
Year of publishing : | 2021 | ||||
Volume: | 78 | ||||
Page range: | 185-198 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 13 | ||||
Associated Programs and Other Stakeholders: | SLU - Environmental assessment > Data from Environmental Assesment (FoMA) is used SLU - Environmental assessment > Programme Coastal and sea areas | ||||
ISSN: | 1054-3139 | ||||
Language: | English | ||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||
Version: | Published version | ||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 1 Natural sciences > 106 Biological Sciences (Medical to be 3 and Agricultural to be 4) > Ecology (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 401 Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries > Fish and Aquacultural Science (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 6 Humanities > 601 History and Archaeology > History | ||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-109158 | ||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-109158 | ||||
Additional ID: |
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ID Code: | 23107 | ||||
Faculty: | NJ - Fakulteten för naturresurser och jordbruksvetenskap | ||||
Department: | (NL, NJ) > Department of Aquatic Resources | ||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||
Deposited On: | 08 Apr 2021 07:19 | ||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 08 Apr 2021 07:21 |
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