Fishing the Great Lakes: An Environmental History, 1783-1933 [Hardcover]

Margaret Beattie Bogue (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2000

Fishing the Great Lakes is a sweeping history of the destruction of the once-abundant fisheries of the great "inland seas" that lie between the United States and Canada. Though lake trout, whitefish, freshwater herring, and sturgeon were still teeming as late as 1850, Margaret Bogue documents here how overfishing, pollution, political squabbling, poor public policies, and commercial exploitation combined to damage the fish populations even before the voracious sea lamprey invaded the lakes and decimated the lake trout population in the 1940s. From the earliest records of fishing by native peoples, through the era of European exploration and settlement, to the growth and collapse of the commercial fishing industry, Fishing the Great Lakes traces the changing relationships between the fish resources and the people of the Great Lakes region. Bogue focuses in particular on the period from 1783, when Great Britain and the United States first politically severed the geographic unity of the Great Lakes, through 1933, when the commercial fishing industry had passed from its heyday in the late nineteenth century into very serious decline. She shows how fishermen, entrepreneurial fish dealers, the monopolistic A. Booth and Company (which distributed and marketed much of the Great Lakes catch), and policy makers at all levels of government played their parts in the debacle. So, too, did underfunded scientists and early conservationists unable to spark the interest of an indifferent public. Concern with the quality of lake habitat and the abundance of fish increasingly took a backseat to the interests of agriculture, lumbering, mining, commerce, manufacturing, and urban development in the Great Lakes region. Offering more than a regional history, Bogue also places the problems of Great Lakes fishing in the context of past and current worldwide fishery concerns. "The discovery, exploitation, and destruction of the Great Lakes fisheries is an important story that should be told, and Margaret Bogue is the first to tell it from such a broad historical, geographic, and environmental perspective. The great strength of Fishing the Great Lakes is the very extensive historical evidence drawn from American and Canadian archives."-Stephen Bocking, Trent University, Ontario, author of Ecologists and Environmental Politics "Bogue addresses a problem that has caught the attention of no other historian, despite its very basic interest to both the United States and Canada. This book fills a huge void in our understanding of the fisheries of the Great Lakes."-Kurk Dorsey, University of New Hampshire, author of The Dawn of Conservation Diplomacy

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Bogue (history and liberal studies, Univ. of Wisconsin; Around the Shores of Lakes Michigan: A Guide to Historic Sites) has written the definitive history of the decline of the Great Lakes fisheries. More than a natural history, the book is also a social history of the population's relation to, and attitudes toward, the fisheries. The author uses records of early explorers and fish dealers, American and Canadian documents, court records, newspapers, company histories, and biographies to document 150 years of fishing the "deer of the lakes" (whitefish) by Native Americans, diverse immigrant groups, and commercial fisheries trusts. The state, national, and international regulatory efforts to conserve and to save threatened species during the Depression provide important background for today's regulatory actions. This book is a significant history of economic development in the Middle West and is a comprehensive study of the living marine environment of the northern and southern Great Lakes, the largest freshwater bodies in the world. Highly recommended for U.S. and Canadian academic, marine science, and public libraries in the Great Lakes region.DMargaret Aycock, Gulf Coast Environmental Lib., Beaumont, TX
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"The discovery, exploitation, and destruction of the Great Lakes fisheries is an important story that should be told, and Margaret Bogue is the first to tell it from such a broad historical, geographic, and environmental perspective. The great strength of Fishing the Great Lakes is the very extensive historical evidence drawn from American and Canadian archives."—Stephen Bocking, Trent University, Ontario, author of Ecologists and Environmental Politics

"Bogue addresses a problem that has caught the attention of no other historian, despite its very basic interest to both the United States and Canada. This book fills a huge void in our understanding of the fisheries of the Great Lakes."—Kurk Dorsey, University of New Hampshire, author of The Dawn of Conservation Diplomacy

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 456 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Pr; 1 edition (August 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299167607
• ISBN-13: 978-0299167608
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,323,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Historiography Nathan Schott, November 14, 2011

By 

John Mullen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fishing the Great Lakes: An Environmental History, 1783-1933 (Paperback)

I read this book for my senior thesis project the working thesis i have going is the economic impacts of sport fishing on the great lakes. while the topic i have now is working towards the later introduction of salmon in the great lakes this book has helped me gain a lot of knowledge on the topic. the book is very well written and is also very informative. The author goes into great detail on the troubles that fisherman had not necessarily sport fishing but commercial fishing. the book kept me wanting to read it because i am very interested in this topic and in history. while reading the book i gained a lot of valuable background information and you can tell that the author is very familiar with the topic and has done the research necessary to write the book. the bibliography has many primary sources that i have found to help me in my research. Many of the environmental aspects of the book have also aided me in starting to build a case for over fishing and cyclical fishing patterns. I would suggest this book to any academic or even someone just interested in the topic. It is a fun read and a well written piece.

4.0 out of 5 stars Fishing the Great Lakes, August 17, 2010

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C. Blair (Bethesda, MD United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fishing the Great Lakes: An Environmental History, 1783-1933 (Paperback)

This is a thorough and very well researched and documented environmental history of the fishing business (commercial and recreational)in the Great Lakes. The author does an excellent job of explaining in exacting detail the impact of human exploitation - specifically fishing - on the Great Lakes area. As a trained historian I can vouch for the immense amount of research that went into writing this excellent book. My only critique is that at times the writing can be somewhat dry and redundant. Overall it is an outstanding environmental history book.