Book Review

Canada and the United States

In writing about the past, Margaret Beattie Bogue has written a book about our present. The past—in this case the depletion of fish in the Great Lakes due to overfishing, pollution, habitat loss, and failure of governments to limit or restrain fishing or pollution—is all too familiar to us today. Bogue documents fish catches, the world of the fishers, scientists, and government agents, and the transformation of a fabulously rich aqua-ecosystem. That system provided a sustainable yield for hundreds of years, yet over the last 180 years the Great Lakes lost fish.	1
Bogue notes that the stage was set for the destruction of the Great Lakes' fisheries with the creation of governmental structures that divided the authority over the lake system among various governments. The process began when white settlers cleared land for farms and fished the lakes for profit. Although initial settlers' impact was limited, the processes set in motion facilitated the destruction of the fisheries over the next 150 years. Bogue argues that the federalism of the U. S. and Canada created competing governing bodies responsible for the lakes' ecosystems that made creation and enforcement of protective regulation impossible. The industry itself was organized around dealers who wielded significant political clout and, pressured by the market, drove the fishermen to ever greater harvests even in face of declining stocks.	2
Technology and the problem of competing interests using different fishing methods, also contributes to Bogue's tale. Larger nets and boats increased the ability of fishers to capture more fish. Improvements in processing and transportation increased market reach. Increasing costs of equipment drove the fishers to fish with ever greater intensity and to resist any government attempt to restrain them.	. . .