Unsettled seas: towards a history of marine animal populations in the central Indo-Pacific
Christensen, J. (2014). Unsettled seas: towards a history of marine animal populations in the central Indo-Pacific, in: Christensen, J. et al. Historical perspectives of fisheries exploitation in the Indo-Pacific. MARE Publication Series, 12: pp. 13-39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8727-7_2 In: Christensen, J.; Tull, M. (Ed.) (2014). Historical perspectives of fisheries exploitation in the Indo-Pacific. MARE Publication Series, 12. Springer: Dordrecht. ISBN 978-94-017-8727-7. XV, 276 pp. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8727-7, more In: MARE Publication Series. Amsterdam University Press/Springer: Amsterdam. ISSN 2212-6260; e-ISSN 2212-6279, more |  |
| Abstract | A central theme of this book concerns the importance of historical perspectives for understanding the challenges that confront marine capture fisheries in the twenty-first century. This chapter explores this theme in relation to the Central Indo-Pacific, a body of water that lies at the geographic and geopolitical heart of the different case studies brought together in this volume. The Central Indo-Pacific is one of the world’s principal marine biogeographic realms. It is made up of the eastern Indian and western Pacific oceans, and the seas linking the two—the South China Sea, the seas and straits of Southeast Asia, the Coral Sea, the waters separating Australia from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and Australia’s northern continental shelf. Here, I cover a period similar to the timeframe of the book’s other chapters, which extends from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century. This was a period of profound transformation in the marine fisheries of the Central Indo-Pacific, brought about by the intensification of established fisheries and the advent of new industrial fishing practices. My aims are two-fold: to discuss some of the challenges that confront marine environmental historians working in this region; and to describe the major patterns to the transformation of fishing during the period under review, which propelled the Central Indo-Pacific to the centre of the global expansion of marine capture fisheries. |
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