Fishing the Great Lakes: An Environmental History, 1783-1933

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Spring 2002 by Foust, Jerry L

Fishing the Great Lakes: An Environmental History, 1783-1933. By Margaret Beattie Bogue. (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2000. Pp. Xix, 444. Illus.., tables, notes, bibliography, index. Cloth, $65.00, paper, $27.95.)

The story of commercial fishing in the Great Lakes is woefully under-researched in American history. The Great Lakes area is a distinct and important region, nationally and internationally and commercial fishing has played an important role in its development. Margaret Beattie Bogue's Fishing in the Great Lakes: An Environmental History, 17831933 helps the rest of us understand the impact of human activity on the environment and how that impact affected human economy, culture, and politics, as well as fish species, in the region. She examines the records of United States and Canadian fishing policies, fishing technology, and policy enforcement to create a highly technical story of incredible scope. Bogue's primary argument is that long before the invasion of the sea lamprey in the 1940s environmental degradation was well underway as a result of pollution, over-fishing, and poor public policies.

Through comprehensive research of primary and secondary source materials Bogue casts her own historical nets upon the sometimes murky waters of Great Lakes' fishery management. Tracing what she views as the origins of the ecological damage to the fishery, she notes that, "the problems that eventually came to threaten the fish population of the lakes originated in the wilderness period when Great Britain and the newly created United States divided the waters and the fishes in 1783." (331) The early decisions by Great Britain and the U.S. continued to influence all subsequent policy decisions and perpetuated myths about the abundance of fishes in the lakes. Underlying the problems associated with creating any effective policy to maintain the fishery were the tumultuous relationships between the U.S. and Canadian governments, the U.S. fishermen and the Canadian government, and fishermen from both countries.

Bogue suggests that the fishermen are like farmers, particularly with respect to ownership of fishing grounds, hoping, as she notes, to hand down the fishing grounds and equipment to their heirs. Indeed, the fishermen are similar in many ways to the sodbusters of the prairie. These fishermen, like their sodbuster kin, ploughed the waters dry and unknowingly unleashed an ecological whirlwind that left little for them to exploit or for their heirs to inherit. Their ever-improving tools such as gillnets, gillnet lifters, and motor-fishing tugs enabled them to expand the areas in which they fished. These tools have all but disappeared from the waterscape and now collect more dust in museums than fish from the lakes.

This work may seem to some to be a bit dry and difficult to wade through. It lacks the fishermen's stories of hardship and perseverance, which many might like to read. But this work is not about that. It is, as Bogue points out, a story of the relationship between fishermen and the fish-a relationship that from hindsight has had more downs than ups. It is a great resource for anyone interested in environmental or regional history and an invaluable addition to the history and knowledge of commercial fishing in the Great Lakes.

Jerry L. Foust is Curator of the Michigan Maritime Museum in South Haven, Michigan.