From the Rolls of Parliament (UK) 1376_1377:
Great Complaints are made against the use of the net call `wondyrchoun' which drags from the bottom of the sea all the bait `that used to be the food of great fish', Through means of this instrument fishermen catch `such great plenty of small fish that they do not know what to do with them, but fatten their pigs with them'.
What "present day" quotation could be used to show that really so very little has been changed?
Henry Maurice, ICES President from 1920 to 1938, reminded ICES Member Countries at the 30th Anniversary (1932) of the need for programmes of work that furnished "the knowledge essential to the rational exploitation of the sea i.e. turning its resources to best advantage in the present without prejudice to the future". This thought is now something of the underlying theme to the concept of "sustainability" and most of it was used in the 1991 Declaration. Did someone tip off the writers?
Since meeting Daniel Pauly at the Dublin ASC (1993) some of us have made a point of keeping up with this quarterly (formerly the ICLARM Newsletter) with which he has been linked for a long time. There's always something, somewhere that makes the mind twitch ... e.g., July 1996: "Rehabilitating fished ecosystems: insights from the past" and the review of "Re-inventing fisheries management".
Jens Smed's Hydrography Parties always featured songs from Member Countries as well as sea-going songs. The Centenary Working Group would be pleased to be loaned a copy just to see if it could be of use at one or all of the planned meetings. Please send it to John Ramster as the contact-point.
IF ONLY IT HADN'T HAPPENED: The feeling in several institutes round the ICES community? (From Life, The Universe and Everything)
The colonization of earth was explained as a result of migration from another planet. On this planet, a purported impending supernova was used as an excuse to gather the people together in space ships so they could leave. The population was divided up into three ships according to their position in society. The first ship contained the thinkers, and the third the workers, while the second contained all of the necessary professions of bankers, accountants, middle managers, consultants, politicians, etc. On the day of departure the second ship was sent ahead, and once it was out of sight the occupants of the first and third disembarked and went on with their lives. The occupants of the second ship colonized earth.