The Fisherman's Problem: Ecology and Law in the California Fisheries, 1850-1980 (Studies in Environment and History) [Paperback]

Arthur F. McEvoy (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521385865 | ISBN-13: 978-0521385862 | Publication Date: January 26, 1990

The living resources of California's rivers and coastal waters are among the most varied and productive in the world. They also offer a laboratory example of the mismanagement and waste that have attended the settlement and development of the North American continent. The Fisherman's Problem is a study of the interaction among resource ecology, economic enterprise, and law in the history of the California fishing industry. It analyzes the ways in which the natural environment not only provided the raw material for economic development but played an active role in it as well. As this book shows, the natural environment has a history both independent of, and yet influenced by, classic example of 'common property' re-environmental conservation generally, as well as in the management of the fisheries of the world's rivers and oceans. Professor McEvoy discusses the different ways in which human communities have harvested and managed the region's fisheries, from those of the American Indians and immigrants from Europe and Asia to those of modern, industrial-bureaucratic society. By reconstructing the ecological history of the fisheries during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this study develops a new perspective on environmental problems as contemporary observers understood them and on the results of their efforts to deal with those problems. The book concludes with an analysis of significant changes taking place in the 1970s and 1980s in the politics and theory of resource management. By combining a synthesis of recent scholarship in such disciplines as law, economics, marine biology, and anthropology with original research into the fishing industry's history, the book represents a significant new departure in the study of ecology and change in human society.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In The Fisherman's Problem, Arthur F. McEvoy researches the ecological and legal background of California's fisheries from the days of the American Indians up to this decade. In it, he clarifies, and annotates in painstaking detail, the environmental and social issues relating not only to West Coast fisheries but also to the theory and politics of resource management in general. In synthesizing a vast amount of recent research, McEvoy builds a strong case for the fisher's problems being, at heart, a social problem, one with enormous implications and lessons for ecological issues across the board." Marty Olmstead, The San Francisco Chronicle

Book Description

A critical appraisal of California's fishing industry management develops from an interdisciplinary compilation of recent research in law, economics, marine biology and anthropology.

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 26, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521385865
• ISBN-13: 978-0521385862
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #333,571 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent histoical analysis, March 15, 2004

By 

Jacob (Santa Cruz, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fisherman's Problem: Ecology and Law in the California Fisheries, 1850-1980 (Studies in Environment and History) (Hardcover)

In one essay--"California Indians as Capable Resource Managers"--taken from this book, McEvoy convincingly argues that the native peoples living here before Europeans came TRULY lived and used resources sustainably.

We ought to take to heart the ways the Indians dealt with the issues of resource depletion and over-population that we face today.