Fisheries History
Brenda Guild Gillespie Brenda Guild Gillespie
My principal area of research has been fisheries history, especially activities along the Pacific coast of North America. This work has developed two principal foci. The first has been Pacific salmons (Oncorhynchus spp.). I have studied the aboriginal, industrial, and sport fisheries from Oregon to Alaska, examining how how each group has tried to manage their fisheries, and how the development of scientific research, hatchery programs, and pen-raised aquaculture of Atlantic (Salmo salmo) and Pacific salmons has shaped each group's control of fishing, if not the fish. This work has resulted in a number of articles and one book, Making Salmon: An Environmental History of the Northwest Fisheries Crisis. More recently a second area of research has begun to trace the social and ecological links among fisheries. This work concentrates on the northeast Pacific Ocean since the 1880s. There is a sizable historical literature on the salmon and whaling industries in the region, but there has been very little historical research on the other pelagic and bottom fisheries, including Pacific halibut, which is a current focus. My goal is to develop a historical and spatial understanding of how this web of fisheries has developed since the 1880s, and how scientists and managers have responded over that period. It seems increasingly clear that single species histories are insufficient to address the tangle of ecological and social problems that link many species and fisheries across a broad expanse of the northeast Pacific. Thus my ultimate goal is to produce an environmental history of the northeast Pacific fisheries that illustrates the complex relationships between nature, humans, and the state. By incorporating GIS tools in this research, I also hope to produce time-series maps that illustrate changes in fish populations, industrial fisheries, scientific research, and government management.
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