A century of sea fisheries in Belgium

What exactly did the landings of Flemish fishermen look like 50 or even 100 years ago, and where did most of the landings come from? Historical fisheries data support the investigation of ‘historical ecology’ (how did our sea look like in the past?) and the issue of ‘shifting baselines’. The historical context of our sea fisheries is also very important to document the cultural heritage of our coastal society. The project ‘A century of sea fisheries’ brings together data and information from different, fragmented sources into an integrated database.

Statistics on commercial species of Belgian sea fisheries: data on the composition and value of landings, geographical information on the fishing areas of origin, scientific background on the species.
Belgian fishing fleet: a search interface for the life and characteristics of individual fishing vessels in the Belgian sea fisheries since 1929 (in progress).
Collection of Royal laws and decrees and other relevant legislation
Timeline for the historical reconstruction of the Belgian (Flemish) sea fisheries (events, legislation, technological changes, ...).
Collection of publications and other sources that had a particular contribution (data or context) to the project.
Publications as a result of 'A century of sea fisheries'.

Photo gallery: Historical photographs, images and film footage from the Belgian sea fisheries; and ‘Wetenschatten’ for images of fisheries from historical literature and old distribution maps of commercial species in 'The piscatorial atlas of the North Sea..' (Olsen 1883)'.
Project Partners and contributors