In the early 1950s the British Government Information Office commissioned a photo essay about the fishing industry that could be displayed at exhibitions and conferences. Copies were sent to fisheries libraries around the world. Fisheries Centre Director Tony Pitcher was given a spare copy of these captioned photographs when the library at Cronulla in New South Wales, Australia was clearing out some old files. The photos depict the period before the heavy mechanization of the North Sea trawlers (note the picture showing hauling a trawl net over the side by hand), just before the first freezer trawler (The Fairtry was launched in Aberdeen in March 1954), and when Britain manufactured fishing nets from hemp and flax rope. The FAO catch data set had just begun. An optimistic air of man-pitted-against-nature runs through the captions written in the age of the 'new Elizabethans'. No-one suspected that within 50 years fisheries would cause the North Sea to be bled dry of fish, the Canadian cod to become virtually extinct, and marine ecosystems world-wide be become depauperate. What guesses for the next 50 years?
Deck of the boat
Hauling in the catch
Bringing the catch on deck
Meal in the mess
Reaching port
The skipper at home
Looking at the process of converting flax to nets Cover photo
Bridport, centre of the flax-growing district
Soaking (retting) flax to remove the natural fat from outside stalks
Flax after retting, drying, dressing, seed removal, and grading
At the spinning mill
Making twine into fishing lines
Delivering twine for weaving into nets
Women weaving nets
