History Department Seminar Series: Michael Del Vecchio speaks on fish culture, Friday February 4

From Derek Neal:

This is how Mike himself describes his talk:
Farming Fish:
Fish-culture and Sport in the late Nineteenth Century
Over the past one hundred and fifty years the province of Ontario has stocked
over twenty billion fish. This paper seeks to understand how local, provincial,
national, and transnational influences shaped the practice and ideology of fish-
culture in Ontario in the second half of the nineteenth century. Fish-culture, also
known as pisciculture or aquaculture, has defined angling ethics, fisheries science,
and state management of freshwater ecosystems in the province since the first
fish was stocked in 1864. The technology of fish-culture has altered almost every
freshwater ecosystem in Ontario within the reach of anglers. Unique water bodies
were replaced with "techno-sportscapes" through the introduction of non-native
fish species. Fish such as Rainbow Trout, whose native range is restricted to the
Pacific Rim, and Brown Trout, imported from Europe, have become “naturalized”
species in the Great Lakes and several other bodies of water throughout Ontario
as a result of stocking efforts. A vast body of literature exists on fish-culture
published between 1850 and 1900, the majority of which was written by and to
recreational fishers. Using books and sporting journals published in England, the
United States, and Canada, I demonstrate how these watery techno-spaces were
part of an international trend which can be located at the intersection of technology
and angling. 

It's in A122 at 2:30 PM.

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