HMAP Dataset 05: Newfoundland, 1698-1833

This HMAP case study is designed to enhance knowledge and understanding of the interaction of human societies and the marine environment through analysis of the relationship between levels of cod catches and fishing effort in the ‘Newfoundland fishery’ from the late 1660s to the early nineteenth century. It seeks to attain this goal by:

extending the chronological range of previous analyses by assessing rates of catch- per-unit-effort in the second half of the seventeenth century, before the English Colonial Office commenced collecting annual census statistics in 1698 (see dataset 6);
broadening the spatial scope of previous investigations by disaggregating the historical data pertaining to the British Newfoundland fishery, 1698-1833, into regional divisions, and analysing them to identify the factors that explained the spatial development of the fishery over time.