Atlantic Salmon History Project

The history of New England's fishing industry since 1500 is about the intervention, funding and lack thereof of governments in the fishing industry.

Being ignint of this history is just plain ... ignint.

The macroeconomic debates we hear today are not markedly different from what we see in legislative debates and petitions from 1720 or 1870.

The tension is invariably between short vs. long term returns.

Those favoring short term returns invariably win the debate, because they can produce those returns ... voila ... faster !!!

Those favoring long term returns (which require short term restraint) are always handicapped because we cannot time travel 50-100 years in the future and see the actual results of each approach; and when we can (as these documents allow us to do) then people just pretend these documents do not exist.

This is why conservation almost always loses and why we have very few fish left.

It is not by accident.

This is why I spent 3 years collecting these documents.

Most have never been seen before.

Do take a look.

Thanks.