He said it was a bit of an unholy alliance between historians and scientists when he set out to research and write his award-winning book, The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail. But as W. Jeffrey Bolster, professor of history at the University of New Hampshire tells it, the final product proved it was rewarding.
And rewards there were when Bolster’s book came out in 2012. He received the 2013 Bancroft Prize in history of the Americas and, that same year, the Albert J. Beveridge Award.
On October 4, as he stood in front of a rapt audience at the Mattapoisett Public Library, it was as if the book had just been released. Bolster carried this local crew through the pages of his discoveries with the ease of an able captain in very calm seas.
The subject matter gave one pause – the delicate relationship between humankind and its use and abuse of the oceans.
Bolster’s book chronicles an entire millennium, a voyage from Vikings to Victorians and everything in between. He explained how throughout human evolution, the drive to secure food from any and all sources was paramount to survival and in so doing the Atlantic Ocean has suffered.
Through his research with the help of scientists and archivists, Bolster documented how mankind has overfished wherever they have inhabited. He said, as the Vikings fished off waters near their homelands for hundreds of years, fish depletion forced them to sail farther and farther from home. What these early fishermen found was akin to a Garden of Eden.
“There was everything here that they had at home, but so much more,” said Bolster.
Bolster pointed to “modern fishing technologies and greedy capitalists” as the two most significant pressures placed upon the oceans. Yet, he wasn’t necessarily pointing to this century or even the last. He made a strong argument that overfishing for the reasons previously noted has been ongoing for many centuries.
He said, as cod in the northern Atlantic started to decline in the 1800s, fisherman sought newer methods in an effort to catch more. They went from simple drop lines off the side of sailing ships to using a series of smaller vessels with the thought that more lines in the water equaled greater catches. That worked for a while but, of course, the fish stocks continued to dwindle.
Through his research, Bolster collected vast amounts of data from fishing boat logs from the 1800s, gaining concrete evidence that overfishing was taking place. He said that by the time George Washington was president, “the coastal seas had been compromised.”
The story of the Great Auk, a now extinct flightless bird akin to the penguin and a victim of aggressive use of marine resources, is a case in point Bolster explained. Rather than this unique penguin being prized for its very existence, as we prize most animals today, in the 19th century they were used for bait. The last one was killed in 1844.
And so he wove a picture that led the listeners through the centuries – not so much to bring new conservation methods to the masses as to enlighten on how we got to where we are today, but to tell of a suffering fishing industry on its own way to extinction.
When asked during the question and answer period what he thought would be the greatest challenge to humankind as the planet is pressured to produce enough food for all he answered, “It won’t be food; it will be potable water.”
Bolster’s easy conversational style and comfort in front of an audience was evident making the subject matter, one that is difficult at best, interesting and entertaining; however, the take away remained profound.
A book signing and reception followed the lecture.
The Mattapoisett Public Library in concert with the Purrington Lecture Series, a nonprofit organization that supports the library with programming and funds for equipment, sponsored Bolster’s presentation.
Visit www.mattapoisett.net and click on the library tab to see a calendar of upcoming events.
By Marilou Newell
