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Fish
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400Mil BC |
Scientists in 2006 reported that an armored fish from this time called Dunkleosteus terreli grew up to 30 feet, weighed as much as 4 tons, and used its powerful toothless jaws to tear food apart. Links: Fish, HistoryBC 
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400Mil BC |
Fossil remains of coelacanth fish have been identified in deposits dating back nearly 400 million years. The fish has a rostral organ in its skull, a feature similar to one that sharks use to detect the weak electric fields given off by their prey. Living specimens in 1938 were caught off the coast of East Africa and in 1998 were caught in Indonesian waters. The females were found to bear live young following internal fertilization. Links: Fish, HistoryBC
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385Mil BC |
A fish species later called Panderichthys lived about this time. Links: Fish, HistoryBC
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383Mil BC |
In 2004 paleontologists found fossils of a primitive fish, named Tiktaalik roseae, on Ellesmere Island in Canada’s Nunavut territory that dated to about this time. The fossils showed evidence of ribs, neck, rudimentary ear bones and primitive limbs. Links: Canada, Fish, HistoryBC
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380Mil BC |
In 2008 scientists traced the origin of fingers and toes to fish-like creatures that roamed the seas about this time. Links: Fish, HistoryBC
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380Mil BC |
In 2009 Scientists from Australia and Britain studying 380 million-year-old fossils of the armored placoderm fish, or Incisoscutum richiei, said embryos in the fish indicated that sex as we know it, fertilization of eggs while they are still inside a female, took place as much as 30 million years earlier than previously thought. They originally thought the fish laid their eggs before fertilization. Links: Australia, Sex, Fish, HBC
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375Mil BC |
In 2006 scientists reported the discovery of a predator fossil fish dating to this time in on Canada’s Ellesmere Island in the High Arctic. It was later named Tiktaalik roseae and further analysis found it to have developed a mobile neck, an important development for living on land. The fish displayed bones at the ends of its fins suggestive of developing fingers and toes. Links: Canada, Fish, HistoryBC
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360Mil BC |
By late Devonian time some bony fish not only undoubtedly had lungs, but also had stumpy or lobed fins, the antecedents of legs. The 2-foot long ichthyostega from eastern Greenland was among the 1st fish to move on land. Links: Fish, Greenland, HistoryBC
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300Mil BC |
In 2009 researchers in Kansas found the fossilized brain of an iniopterygian fish dating to about this time. The fish is a relative of modern ratfishes, also known as ghost sharks. Links: Kansas, Fish, HistoryBC
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55Mil BC |
Bony fish, initially fresh water creatures, took to the sea about this time. Links: Fish, HistoryBC
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1853 May |
The first public aquarium was opened in the London Zoo. It was the brainchild of English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse (1810-1888). The "Fish House", as it came to be known, was constructed much like a greenhouse. Links: Britain, Fish
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1854 |
English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse (1810-1888) published “The Aquarium” and set off a mid-Victorian craze for household aquariums. Links: Britain, Fish, Books
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1859 |
The London Fish House unveiled 4 seahorses, long believed to mythical creatures. Seahorses are the only species in which the males become pregnant, providing the young with food and oxygen before giving birth to up to 1,000 babies, each the size of a flea. Links: Britain, Fish
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1875 |
The first US sardine cannery opened in Maine, when a New York businessman set up the Eagle Preserved Fish Co. in Eastport. In 2010 the Stinson Seafood plant in eastern Maine, shut down after a century in operation. It was the last sardine cannery not just in Maine, but in the United States. Links: USA, Maine, Fish
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1888 |
In Spain the fishing company Grupo Viera SA was founded. Links: Spain, Fish
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1917 |
D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860-1948), Scottish classicist, mathematician and biologist, produced his work "On Growth and Form," the first formal attempt to analyze patterns and shapes in nature. His work also included "A Glossary of Greek Birds" and "A Glossary of Greek Fishes." Links: Scotland, Biology, Fish, Books, Birds
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1918 |
The Copco 1 Dam was constructed on the Klamath River in northern California. It permanently blocked access to more than 75 miles of salmon and steelhead habitat in the main stem of the upper Klamath and its tributaries. [see 1925] Links: USA, California, Environment, Fish
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1925 |
The Copco 2 dam was constructed on the Klamath River in northern California just a quarter-mile downstream of the original dam. [see 1918] Links: USA, California, Environment, Fish
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1930 May 1 |
Anton J. Anderson, a Sausalito fisherman, returned to port in SF, Ca., towing 2 boats and carrying the bodies of Allen Curry (29), a deputy fish and game warden, and James Burke (48), a former game warden. Anderson himself was wounded and explained that he had shot the 2 men in self defense after they tried to confiscate his nets. Anderson was not indicted and returned to fishing. He died mysteriously 3 years later off the Mendocino shore. Links: USA, California, SF Bay Area, Fish
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1932 1968 |
The Chisso Corporation, located in Kumamoto Japan, dumped an estimated 27 tons of mercury compounds into Minamata Bay. Thousands of people whose normal diet included fish from the bay, unexpectedly developed symptoms of methyl mercury poisoning. Links: Japan, Environment, Fish
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1933 |
In Pennsylvania the Pymatuning Dam impounded the Pymatuning Reservoir. It was constructed to regulate the flow of the Shenango and Beaver rivers. The reservoir later became a major attraction for tourists, who came to feed the local carp. Links: USA, Pennsylvania, Fish
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1935 |
In Japan the Tsukji fish market opened in Tokyo. It grew to become the largest fish market in the world. In 2004 Ted Bestor authored “Tsukji: The Fish market at the Center of the World.” Links: Japan, Fish
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1942 |
Construction began on the new Friant Dam near Fresno, Ca. Completion of the dam in 1944 ended the salmon run on the San Joaquin River. Legislation in 2008 hoped to restore the river’s salmon run. Links: USA, California, Fish
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1947 1971 |
In southern California Montrose Chemical Co. manufactured DDT during this period and released about 2,000 tons of the pesticide into sewers that flowed to the ocean. In 2007 fish caught off Los Angeles County's coast still contained high levels of DDT, banned since 1972, decades after a manufacturer dumped tons of the pesticide into sewers, creating a toxic plume on the ocean bottom. Links: USA, California, Environment, Fish
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1955 |
A large number of dead fingerling salmon and several hundred thousand king salmon were killed in a few hours. Many swallows were reported dead by the river in northern California near Iron Mountain. Links: USA, California, Environment, Fish
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1964 |
Leicester Hemingway, brother of Ernest Hemingway, put together floating platforms off the west coast of Jamaica and called it the Republic of New Atlantis. He hoped to create a marine research society and help protect Jamaican fishing. Links: Jamaica, Fish
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1965 |
A Navy dolphin named Tuffy carried tools and messages to Sealab II divers off the coast of La Jolla, Ca. Links: USA, Technology, Fish
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1968 |
Charles C.G. Chaplin and James Bohlke co-authored “Fishes of the Bahamas and Adjacent Tropical Waters.” Links: Bahamas, USA, Fish, Books
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1968 |
Floating fish-processing factories took in a combined catch of 810,000 tons of cod off the eastern banks of North America. During the next decade there was a steady drop cod population. Links: USA, Fish
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1969 |
In California some 1,600 fish, mostly adult and yearling salmon, died After a heavy rain of copper poisoning below the Kewick Dam. Links: California, Environment, Fish
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1969 |
Fish and wildlife officials in New York and Vermont banned fish shooting. In 1970 the Vermont Legislature re-instated the sport. Links: USA, New York, Vermont, Fish
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1969 |
The International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas entered into force. ICCAT, with headquarters based in Madrid, Spain, was established at a Conference of Plenipotentiaries, which prepared and adopted the convention, signed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1966. Links: Spain, Fish
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1969 |
Hugh Fish (d.1999 at 76) environmental engineer, was named chief purification officer of the Thames Conservancy and set about to restore fish to the Thames River. An angler caught the first prize salmon in 1985. Links: Britain, Fish
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1971 |
In Kenya the Norwegian government designed a fish processing plant at Lake Turkana to provide jobs to the nomadic Turkana people. The plant was completed and soon shut down due to high operating costs for the freezers in the desert. Links: Kenya, Norway, Fish
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1971 |
Bonaire, Netherland Antilles, outlawed spearfishing off the island. Links: Fish, Bonaire
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1972 Aug 17 |
The International Tribunal in The Hague pronounced that the Icelanders did not have sovereignty over the areas between 12 and 50 miles. The Icelandic government protested and decided to take no notice of this decree. Links: Netherlands, Iceland, Fish
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1972 |
The jellyfish population in the Black Sea exploded following the completion of a dam in a section of the Danube that runs between Serbia and Romania. Links: Black Sea, Fish
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1972 1973 |
El Nino currents led to the collapse of the Peruvian anchovy industry. Links: Peru, Fish
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1974 |
Libby Dam, a hydroelectric facility in Montana run by the Army Corps of Engineers, was built to serve power markets in the Pacific Northwest. When the dam went up it stopped periodic flooding of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, and the high water flows that triggered local sturgeon to move upriver and spawn. Links: USA, Environment, Montana, Fish
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1975 Oct 15 |
Iceland moved its intl. boundary for fishing rights from 50 to 200 miles. Links: Iceland, Fish
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1976 Jun 2 |
Great-Britain & Iceland terminated their codfish war. It was agreed that only 24 British vessels would be allowed in the 200 mile zone and four conservation areas would be completely closed to the British. Links: Britain, Iceland, Fish
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1976 |
Norman Maclean (1902-1990) published "A River Runs Through It and Other Stories." It was a story about fly fishing in Montana. Recorded books put out a cassette version in 1993 with other stories that included "Logging and Pimping and ‘Your Pal, Jim’," and "USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky." Links: Writer, Montana, Fish, Books
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1976 |
US Congress passed the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act. It extended US territorial waters to 200 miles offshore. Links: USA, Fish
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1977 Jan 23 |
Ireland set its fishing zone at 200 miles. Links: Ireland, Fish
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1977 Mar 1 |
The US 200-mile fishery conservation zone went into effect. The US extended its territorial waters out to 200 miles to stop fishing by boats of foreign nations. Links: USA, Fish
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1977 |
Canada declared an exclusive economic zone over fisheries within 200 miles of its coast. Links: Canada, Fish
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1978 |
Hundreds of fish near Iron Mountain, Ca., died from mine pollutants. Links: USA, California, Fish
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1978 |
The Chinese Academy of Sciences set up the River Dolphin Research Group in Wuhan. The baiji, a white river dolphin, was declared a "rare and precious aquatic animal" the following year. Links: China, Fish
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1978 1994 |
In 2006 research on fish trawls from this period revealed that 5 deep sea species had plummeted by 87%-98% and that average size of fish had declined in one case by as much as 57%. Links: Environment, Fish
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1978 2008 |
India over this period exchanged 949 Pakistani fishermen in exchange for 2,304 Indian fishermen, which each side had apprehended for wandering into their respective waters in the disputed Sir Creek area. In early 2009 trade unions said India still held 357 Pakistani fishermen and that Pakistan held 48 Indian fishermen. Links: India, Pakistan, Fish
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1979 |
Harmony Books published “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. In the book the British writer described the Babel fish, a live fish placed in the ear that translates any form of language. Links: Britain, Fish, Books, Language
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1980 Aug 22 |
A great white shark captured Aug 19 was hauled back to the ocean after spending 2 ½ days at San Francisco’s Steinhart Aquarium. The 4-month-old female had not eaten since her arrival. Over 20,000 people paid to see the shark. Links: SF, Fish
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1980 Nov 11 |
Crab season opened in SF. Some 9 million pounds were caught in the 1956-1957 season. Recent annual catches averaged 300,000 pounds. Links: USA, Environment, SF, Fish
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1980 Dec 28 |
Mexico ended a bilateral fishing agreement with US in a dispute over tuna. Links: USA, Mexico, Fish
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1982 Jan 5 |
SF Bay fishermen refused to fish for herring after Japanese buyers offered $800 a ton. Buyers recently paid $1200 a ton. Ten years earlier, before fishermen realized there was a Japanese demand for herring roe, the fish sold for $50 a ton. Links: USA, Japan, SF Bay Area, Fish
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1982 Dec 10 |
The UN Law of the Sea treaty opened for signature. It extended internationally recognized territorial waters to 200 miles offshore. The convention came into force on November 16, 1994, one year after the sixtieth state, Guyana, signed it. The treaty gave countries the power to restrict fishing within 231 miles of their coasts. The convention created the International Seabed authority and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (http://tinyurl.com/2wsq9p). Links: UN, Guyana, Fish
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1982 |
The jellyfish-like creature, Mnemiopsis leidyi, arrived in Black Sea, probably in the ballast water of a cargo ship, and began to devastate the ecology of the almost closed ecosystem. Links: Black Sea, Environment, Fish
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1983 Feb 13 1983 Feb 14 |
The Americus and Altair fishing boats sank in the Bering Sea and 14 fishermen from Anacortes, Wa., died. In 1998 Patrick Dillon authored "Lost At Sea," an account of the tragedy. Links: USA, Washington, Fish
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1983 Jul |
The Tuna Task Force (TTF) issued a draft plan of management. It contained 14 recommendations, the most important of which include the use of catch-quotas, minimum limits on fish-size, limited-entry and further limits on purse-seine operations. It was proposed that the plan should come into effect at the beginning of the 1983-84 fishing season (on 1 October 1993). Because of difficulties in reaching agreement on all aspects, this target was not achieved. Australia, New Zealand and Iceland pioneered Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) for commercial fisheries. Links: Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Fish
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1983 |
Concrete and steel from the press boxes in the old Gator Bowl stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., ended up as a reef in the Atlantic Ocean. Links: USA, Environment, Florida, Football, Fish
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