Cristina Brito

News about exotic large marine animals started to spread around Europe since the second half of the 16th century. These, containing both written and visual information, were typically included in encyclopedias and treaties, but also in pamphlets that easily moved from one person to another, disseminating the available information through distinct nets of knowledge and to different audiences. By the 18 th century, both as part of newspapers and pamphlets, information about strange natural events were amply printed and translated in several vernacular languages. These became increasingly of great interest to common people and not only to scholars, naturalists or collectors, but also practitioners and craftsmen. Printed news included records and rare occurrences of local and exotic fauna. The analysis of Portuguese sources contributed with good examples of such events, firstly published in Portugal and then copied and translated to other vernacular tongues. It is the case of a fin whale stranded in the Tagus estuary (Lisbon) reported in the Gazeta de Lisboa 1723 with a detailed description of the specimen, accompanied by an illustration of the whale with its measures, which was afterwards translated and printed in a Ger-man pamphlet. Here, the transfer of natural history accounts and communication of new concepts of the natural world was conducted from the periphery to the centre of Europe. Other news of large marine animals stranding on the Portuguese shore and respective illustrations were also produced. All together they seem to show the interest of all levels of the society for such rare and strange events. Moreover, these whales in pamphlets and in other publications contribute to the construction of a modern European concept of the natural world.

Portugal, together with the Basque Country, was an important whaling location where a whale culture developed since the Middle Age. Whaling and the ways of using stranded whales spread with the Portuguese expansion in the South Atlantic in the 15 th century. In fact, organized whaling and development of related techniques did follow the Portuguese and Spanish expansion in the Atlantic. In the medieval and early modern Portugal, whaling had been an important economic activity. Nevertheless, reliable information for the period roughly spanning from the 13 th to the 18 th centuries is still scarce. Based on historical descriptions our investigation addresses the information available about the techniques used, the species exploited and the transfer of an activity across different Atlantic regions. In the 15 th and 16 th centuries whale use migrated from the Portuguese shores in Iberia to the Atlantic Islands (Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde) and to the new overseas territories, particularly to Brazil. Whalers did use small open boats and hand harpoons to reach and kill the whales. The Basque shore-based model was imported by several Atlantic regions but with significant impact on Brazilian coasts. This is relevant in a context of globalization of techniques and ways of handling whales and their products. Once the activity became established in Brazil, in the early 17 th century, the Iberian Crowns started a shore whaling business and a Basque crew was hired for the first seasons. So, the beginning of whaling in these new regions was mostly supported upon Basque expertise. For the next couple of centuries, a structured shore based whaling enterprise developed in the coastal waters of Brazil, mainly

Marine environmental history analyses the changing relationships between human societies and marine natural resources over time. This is the first book which deals in a
systematic way with the theoretical backgrounds of this discipline. Major theories and methods are introduced by leading scholars of the field. The book seeks to encapsulate
some of the major novelties of this fascinating new discipline and its contribution to the management, conservation and restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems as well as the cultural heritages of coastal communities in different parts of the world.

We propose the concept of the “Fish Revolution” to demarcate the dramatic increase in North Atlantic fisheries after AD 1500, which led to a 15-fold increase of cod (Gadus morhua) catch volumes and likely a tripling of fish protein to the European market. We consider three key questions: (1) What were the environmental parameters of the Fish Revolution? (2) What were the globalising effects of the Fish Revolution? (3) What were the consequences of the Fish Revolution for fishing communities? While these questions would have been considered unknowable a decade or two ago, methodological developments in marine environmental history and historical ecology have moved information about both supply and demand into the realm of the discernible. Although much research remains to be done, we conclude that this was a major event in the history of resource extraction from the sea, mediated by forces of climate change and globalisation, and is likely to provide a fruitful agenda for future multidisciplinary research.