Overfishing is a problem with a thousand years of history

Europeans started over-exploiting freshwater fish at least 1000 years ago, according to historical studies that could help manage depleted modern fish stocks worldwide.

Whales teemed in waters off New Zealand in the 19th century and a now almost non-existent cod stock in the Gulf of Maine once totalled tens of thousands of tonnes a year, according to historical records.

Records reconstructed from everything from Russian monastery purchases to US schooner logs indicate that overfishing has been happening in many parts of the world for centuries and that fish used to be more abundant, and bigger, than now.

"We see similar patterns of human impacts on the oceans pretty much everywhere, and in many cases real depletion," says Dr Andy Rosenberg of the University of New Hampshire, a leader of a project called the History of Marine Animal Population (HMAP).

The findings, part of a 10-year Census of Marine Life due for completion in 2010, will be presented this week at the Oceans Past conference in Vancouver.


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