Science, the Sea, and Marine Resource Management: Researching the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea

Abstract

The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has since its founding in 1902 provided a forum for many branches of marine science and embraced a practical mission, to promote fisheries. ICES commissioned a history for its centenary. This paper reflects on how researching ICES history melded public history with environmental history and history of science. All three traditions were essential to understand its institutional development as well as the impact it had on North Atlantic marine resource utilization. More broadly, marine environmental history, to date a virtually nonexistent field, also demands the concert of these three traditions, as well as the international approach that naturally accompanied ICES history.