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Ivy Huang

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Fish and Human Culture: A Brief Description

The importance of fish on human populations around the world is undeniable. Throughout history, different cultures have used fish protein as a food source, with wild caught fish providing the bulk of the fish protein. The oldest known painting of an angler using a rod or staff dates back to 2000 B.C. in Egypt(Anderson 2004). Fish have also been farmed in large quantities for more than 2000 years in China(Orr 2004). In addition, fish have served as a source of recreational pleasure for many people.

A constant but subtle theme in the development of different cultures is the use and dependence on fish and other aquatic life - for sustenance, for trade, for livelihood and for the environment. As a result, the stability and instability of many cultures are dependent on the nearby marine biota. For example, in the last 20 years in Asia, the huge growth of shrimp farming and other aquaculture has helped fuel the economic growth of Thailand,Bangladesh and Vietnam. In these countries, fish exports dominate those of all other agricultural commodities, i.e., in Vietnam in 2001, US$1.8 billion of seafood was exported versus US$600 million of rice (Williams 2004). Fish can also lead to destabilizing forces such as when illegal fishing strains relations between countries. Despite the pervasive nature of fish issues in various regions, they are often not visible on the political agenda until a crisis occurs.  For example, a series of confrontations in the 1950s and 1970s was fought between the United Kingdom and Iceland regardingfishing rights near the coast f Iceland. This conflict, also known as the Iceland Cod Wars, is indicative of the importance and influence of fish on different cultures (Kurlansky 2003).  

Spotlighting Japan's history with fish, we can understand that aquatic organisms play a pivotal role in the culture of island-nations. In Japan, fish is second only to rice as a staple in the Japanese diet. Japan's fishing fleet provides most of the fish consumed domestically and it is on of the largest in the world with a total fish catch of 5.9 million metric tons in 1999 (Cybriwsky et al. 2004).  Coastal fishing of various species in Japan dates back to pre-modern times, but distant-water fishing beyond its present exclusive economic zones (EEZ) only started around the 1920s and increased dramatically during the food shortage of the immediate post--World War II period (Macmillan 2006). However, Japan's coastal fishing has been suffering since the 1970s from both depletion of resources and the lack of successors. In recent years, the removal of trade barriers on fishery products and the reduction of government subsidies to the fishing industry have also forced coastal fishermen to change careers (Macmillan 2006). Unavoidably, the era of fishing as a primary and commodity industry is passing in Japanand in many nations due to increasing demand and decreasing catch.  

 Work Cited:

Anderson, James L. et al. 2004. Fisheries. In Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Standard

Cybriwsky, Roman. A., Peter Duus, John O. Haley, Richard Katz, and Paul Varley. 2004.   Japan. In Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Standard

Kurlansky, Mark. 2003. Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World. New York: Penguin Books.

Macmillan Reference USA. 2006. Fishing Industry-Japan. In Encyclopedia of Modern Asia

Orr, James W.  2004.  Fish. In Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Standard

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