The 13th Conference of the North Atlantic Fisheries History Association (NAFHA) will meet in Hull, UK, on 9-12 November 2011. This meeting is designed to stimulate scholarly exchange between researchers at all levels (from graduate students to senior scientists) and all disciplines which relate to the long-term development of fishing activity and its impact on the marine environment.

Proposals for papers and sessions relating to any aspect of the history of the North Atlantic fisheries are welcome. However, contributions addressing the special theme of the conference – “Market forces, resource depletion and the spatial expansion of the world’s fisheries since c.1850” - are especially encouraged (see below). Proposals (1 page outline of aim, context, sources of paper, plus brief CV) should be sent to David J Starkey (d.j.starkey@hull.ac.uk) by 1 September 2011 – please indicate whether or not your proposed paper addresses the special theme.

Special Theme: “Market forces, resource depletion and the spatial expansion of the world’s fisheries since c.1850”

Inefficiency in world fisheries over the past three decades has largely been attributed to poor governance and a widespread failure to reconcile economic motives with the sustainability of fish populations. Papers addressing this theme will be presented in two sessions which aim to:

1. identify the historical roots of the problem, which arguably lie in the development of the North Atlantic fisheries from the mid-nineteenth century;

2. assess the extent to which this developmental process has impacted on other areas of the globe, through, for instance, the shift of North Atlantic fishing effort to the southern oceans in response to the ‘territorialization’ of the northern seas in the 1970s, and the replication in Africa, South America and Australasia of the short-termist treadmill of demand growth, technological change, overfishing and spatial expansion.

A session concerning this theme will be held at the XVI World Economic History Congress in Stellenbosch, South Africa, on 9-13 July 2012. Those presenting papers on this subject at Hull will be invited to present revised versions of their work to the Stellenbosch Congress and for publication thereafter.

For further details on the Stellenbosch session, contact Ingo Heidbrink (Iheidbri@odu.edu