There is much ‘food for thought’ in the following piece, from ABC Online:
Marine historians picking through 200,000 US restaurant menus since the 1850s, schooner logs and archaeological sites are finding that capricious human tastes have let some species thrive while other stocks have been over-fished for centuries.
Americans scorned lobster until the 1880s while the ancient Romans loved fish so much that their catches depleted the Mediterranean, according to the study that may give clues about how to restore damaged world fish stocks.
“We can only model the future of the oceans based on past evidence,” said Poul Holm, a Danish environmental researcher who is leading a team of about 80 experts in an international project on the History of Marine Animal Populations.
US restaurant menu prices back 150 years, for instance, chart sometimes inexplicable swings in tastes and prices of seafood including swordfish, lobster, abalone, oysters, halibut, haddock and sole.
“Back in the 1860s no one wanted to eat lobster,” said Glenn Jones, a researcher at Texas A&M University at Galveston, who leads the menu project.
Giant lobsters weighing nine kilograms were common in New England.
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Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.