No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Taming the Seas: Empires of Fishing, Colonization and Ecological Collapse in the Western Pacific
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
Abstract
In 2020 Chinese “dark fleets” replaced North Korean “ghost ships” in international discourse as symbolic of a certain form of global maritime threat and disturbance. This article takes a longer view of trouble on the high seas, looking back to the globalization of the oceanic commons at the behest of post 1945 geopolitics and new forms and methodologies of fisheries science. With Carmel Finley's articulation of Pacific Empires of Fishing in mind the article explores fishing histories of East Asia and the Pacific, both during and after the era of colonization The article considers the marginalization of already peripheral traditional Korean fishing communities by Japanese colonization, ecological collapse generated by the technological and statistical development underpinning scientific fishing, and the ghosts made of fish themselves as the powers and logics of accumulation and extraction transform the watery geographies of the Pacific.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Authors 2021
References
Notes
1 Jaeyoon Park et al. 2020. “Illuminating Dark Fishing Fleets in North Korea.” Science Advances 6.30, eabb1197, https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/30/eabb1197
2 Robert Winstanley-Chesters. 2020. Fish, Fishing and Community in North Korea and Neighbours: Vibrant Matters. Singapore: Springer.
3 Paul Williams. 2008. Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. London: Routledge.
4 James Palais. 1981. “Chosŏn Ch'ogi Yangban Yŏn'gu, and Kwagŏ.” Journal of Korean Studies 3. 1: 191-212.
5 Shin-ock Chang, Arkadiusz Kołodziej, and Agnieszka Kołodziej-Durnaś. 2015. “The Social Position of Fishers: South Korea and Poland Compared.” Roczniki Socjologii Morskiej.
6 James Grayson. 2013. Korea: A Religious History. London: Routledge.
7 Yi Chung-hwan 2018. A Place to Live: A New Translation of Yi Chung-hwan's T'aengniji, the Korean Classic for Choosing Settlements, translated by Inshil Choe Yoon, Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.
8 David Mason. 1999. Spirit of the Mountains: Korea's San-shin and Traditions of Mountain-worship. Weatherhill Inc.
9 Robert Buswell. 2009. “Korean Buddhist Journeys to Lands Worldly and Otherworldly.” The Journal of Asian Studies 68.4: 1055-1075.
10 Horace Underwood. 1934 Korean Boats and Ships. Seoul: Royal Asiatic Society Korea Branch (reprint by Yonsei University Press).
11 Ibid, pg. 34.
12 Ibid, pg. 32.
13 Mohd Nawawi. 1971. “Punitive Colonialism: The Dutch and the Indonesian National Integration.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 2. 2: 159-168.
14 Dietrich Sarhage and Johannes Lundbeck.1992. A History of Fishing. Berlin: Springer Verlag, pg, 172.
15 Ibid, pg. 175.
16 Ibid, pg. 176.
17 Ibid. pg, 179.
18 Sidney Lu. 2016. “Colonizing Hokkaido and the Origin of Japanese Trans-Pacific Expansion, 1869–1894.” Japanese Studies 36.2: 251-274.
19 See David Fedman's 2009 article for the Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, “Mounting Modernization: Itakura Katsunobu, the Hokkaido University Alpine Club and Mountaineering in Pre-War Hokkaido” (Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 7.42.1) for the processes and journeys involved in making the mountain ranges, forests and wildernesses of central Hokkaido modern and knowable.
20 David Fedman touches on the Oji Paper Company and its efforts in Hokkaido in his 2020 monograph, Seeds of Control: Japan's Empire of Forestry in Colonial Korea (Seattle: University of Washington), at page 41, but Fedman's work on the Oji Paper Company is in development and from personal communication with the author, there is no doubt that the company's work in Hokkaido will be covered within his future work on this important enterprise in the wider Japanese Imperial project.
21 Dietrich Sarhage and Johanne Lundbeck.1992. A History of Fishing. Berlin: Springer Verlag
22 Ibid, pg. 183.
23 Gi-Wook Shin and Michael Robinson. 2001. Colonial modernity in Korea. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center.
24 Jakobina Arch. 2018. Bringing Whales Ashore: Oceans and the Environment of Early Modern Japan. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
25 Harold Brookfield. 1971. Colonialism Development and Independence: The Case of the Melanesian islands in the South Pacific. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
26 Dietrich Sarhage and Johanne Lundbeck.1992. A History of Fishing. Berlin: Springer Verlag, pg. 183.
27 Ibid, pg 182.
28 Ibid, pg. 184.
29 Ibid, pg 185.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid.
32 Ibid, pg. 186.
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid.
36 Ibid, pg. 187.
37 Kumiko Ninomiya. 2015. “Science of Umami taste: Adaptation to Gastronomic Culture.” Flavour 4.1: 13.
38 Dietrich Sarhage and Johannes Lundbeck.1992. A History of Fishing. Berlin: Springer Verlag, pg. 189.
39 Dietrich Sarhage and Johannes Lundbeck.1992. A History of Fishing. Berlin: Springer Verlag, pg. 189.
40 Ibid, pg. 191.
41 Julia Strauss. 1998. Strong Institutions in Weak Polities: State Building in Republican China, 1927-1940. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
42 Jeremy Taylor. 2002. “The Bund: Littoral Space of Empire in the Treaty Ports of East Asia.” Social History 27. 2: 125-142.
43 Dietrich Sarhage and Johannes Lundbeck.1992. A History of Fishing. Berlin: Springer Verlag, pg. 217.
44 Ibid, 218.
45 Ibid.
46 Ibid, 219.
47 His Imperial Japanese Majesty Resident General. 1909. Annual Report on Reforms and Progress in Korea, 1909, pg. 155.
48 Ibid.
49 Government General of Chosen. 1911.Annual Report on Reforms and Progress in Chosen (Korea) 1910-1911. pg 2018
50 Government General of Chosen, 1921. Annual Report on Reforms and Progress in Chosen (Korea) 1920-1921.
51 Ibid.
52 Ibid.
53 Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, 1946. Summation of Non-Military Activities in Japan and Korea, No 4, January, 1946, Tokyo: Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers Japan, pg. 37
54 Government General of Chosen. 1934. Annual Report on Reforms and Progress in Chosen (Korea) 1933-1934.
55 Ibid, pg. 116.
56 Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, 1946. Summation of Non-Military Activities in Japan and Korea, No 4, January, 1946, Tokyo: Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers Japan.
57 United States Army Forces Pacific, 1946. United States Army Military Government Activities in Korea, Summation No. 6, March, 1946. United States Army Forces Pacific, pg. 30.
58 Ibid.
59 Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, 1946. Summation of Non-Military Activities in Japan and Korea, No 12, September, 1946, Tokyo: Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers Japan, pg. 68.
60 Carmel Finley. 2011. All the Fish in the Sea: Maximum Sustainable Yield and the Failure of Fisheries Management. Chicago: IL: Chicago University Press
61 Jakobina Arch. 2018. Bringing Whales Ashore: Oceans and the Environment of Early Modern Japan. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
62 Ibid, pg. 30.
63 Ibid, pg. 31.
64 Ibid, pg, 32.
65 Ibid, pg. 31.
66 Carmel Finley. 2011. All the Fish in the Sea: Maximum Sustainable Yield and the Failure of Fisheries Management. Chicago: IL: Chicago University Press, pg. 27.
67 Ibid, pg. 39.
68 North Pacific Anadromous Fisheries Commission. 2018. International North Pacific Fisheries Commission (1952–1992). https://npafc.org/inpfc/. Accessed 27th, April, 2019.
69 Carl Sindermann. 1983. “Parasites as Natural Tags for Marine Fish: a Review.” NAFO Sci. Counc. Stud 6: 63-71.
70 Devine, Michael J. 1977. “John W. Foster and the Struggle for the Annexation of Hawaii.” Pacific Historical Review 46.1: 29-50.
71 Thomas Burkman. 2008. Japan and the League of Nations: Empire and World Order, 1914-1938. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.
72 Akira Iriye. 1984. “Contemporary History as History: American Expansion into the Pacific Since 1941.” Pacific Historical Review 53.2: 191-212.
73 Stewart Firth. 1989. “Sovereignty and Independence in the Contemporary Pacific.” The Contemporary Pacific: 75-96.
74 Gavan McCormack and Satoko Oka Norimatsu. 2018. Resistant Islands: Okinawa Confronts Japan and the United States. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
75 Michael Seth. 2016. A Concise History of Modern Korea: From the Late Nineteenth Century to the Present. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, pg. 93.
76 Victor Cha. 2000. “Abandonment, Entrapment, and Neoclassical Realism in Asia: The United States, Japan, and Korea.” International Studies Quarterly 44.2: 261-291.
77 Peter Cowhey. 1993. “Domestic Institutions and the Credibility of International Commitment: Japan and the United States.” International Organization 47. 2: 299-326.
78 Chalmers Johnson. 2000. Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire. London: Macmillan.
79 Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, 1946. Summation of Non-Military Activities in Japan and Korea, No 9, June, 1946, Tokyo: Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers Japan, pg. 88.
80 Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, 1946. Summation of Non-Military Activities in Japan and Korea, No 12, September, 1946, Tokyo: Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers Japan, pg. 68. New Zealand and Australia certainly protested and questioned the United States authority on the dispensation offered to occupied Japan so far as its whaling fleet was concerned at the 1947 meeting of the Far Eastern Commission (see “Proposal by Australia and New Zealand to raise question of authority by U.S.A. for Japanese Whaling Expedition 47/48 at meeting of Far Eastern Commission,” 1947, HM Government, National Archives PREM 8/482). Gavan McCormack also recalls the famous British scholar of Japan, Professor Richard Storry of SOAS, ANU, Oxford and many other institutions, mentioning in a paper at an early meeting of the British Association for Japanese Studies in the mid-1970s, that while working in the British embassy in Tokyo during the occupation of Japan, he had sought the advice of the British government as to what position to take in relation to Japan's desire to resume fishing. His instructions duly came back that His Majesty's government had no objection to such resumption but hoped that Japan could be confined for the time being to sail-powered ships (Personal communication, 2021).
81 Carmel Finley. 2017. All the Boats in the Ocean: How Government Subsides led to Global Overfishing. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press
82 Ibid, pg, 69.
83 Ibid, pg. 74.
84 Carmel Finley. 2011. All the Fish in the Sea: Maximum Sustainable Yield and the Failure of Fisheries Management. Chicago: IL: Chicago University Press.
85 Tim Smith. 1994. Scaling Fisheries: The Science of Measuring the Effects of Fishing, 1855-1955. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pg. 296.
86 Ibid, pg. 310.
87 Ibid, pg. 312.
88 Traditionally territorial sovereignty extended some 3 Nautical Miles from the low tide mark of its coasts (the range of a cannon shot), and fishing rights within those waters were solely held by that nation (for historical work on the origin of the 3 Nautical Miles tradition which is sceptical when it comes to the “cannon shot” notion see: Heinz Kent. 1954. “The Historical Origins of the Three Mile Limit.” The American Journal of International Law 48. 4: 537-553), Although there were some differences across the globe (such as Iceland's shorter 2 Nautical Miles, and Spain's more extensive 6 Nautical Miles), the Truman Declaration extended elements of national sovereignty far beyond the traditional limit. This has led to the contemporary status quo of 200 Nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone's (EEZ's), encompassing the waters around the land territories of most states, an extension to some 12 Nautical Miles from a state's coasts of what are considered sovereign territorial waters, and the development of sovereign rights over sub-sea or continental shelf topographies connected to a state's territorial waters or EEZ (such as the Russian Federation's claim to the Lomontsov Ridge, see Vsevolod Gunitskiy. 2008. “On Thin Ice: Water Rights and Resource Disputes in the Arctic Ocean.” Journal of International Affairs 61.2: 261-271). Analysis of the implications of the Truman Declaration is provided by: Donald Cameron. 1979. “First Steps in the Enclosure of the Oceans: The Origins of Truman's Proclamation on the Resources of the Continental Shelf, 28 September 1945.” Marine Policy 3. 3: 211-224.
89 Carmel Finley. 2011. All the Fish in the Sea: Maximum Sustainable Yield and the Failure of Fisheries Management. Chicago: IL: Chicago University Press, pg. 55.
90 Ibid, pg, 87.
91 Ibid, pg. 88.
92 Ibid.
93 Ibid, pg. 94.
94 Ibid.
95 Ibid.
96 Ibid, pg. 96.
97 Ibid, pg. 95.
98 Ibid, pg. 96.
99 Ibid.
100 Erik Stokstad. 2007. “The Incredible Shrinking Cod,” Science, January 31st, 2008. Accessed 27th April, 2019.
101 Carmel Finley. 2011. All the Fish in the Sea: Maximum Sustainable Yield and the Failure of Fisheries Management. Chicago: IL: Chicago University Press, pg. 95.
102 Ibid, pg. 96.
103 Ibid, pg. 134.
104 Ibid, pg. 146
105 Ibid, pg. 148
106 See again for a report on the removal to the Japanese mainland in the chaos following the Japanese surrender and liberation of Korea, the majority of the fishing fleet and other fishing technology from the waters of the peninsula: United States Army Forces Pacific, 1946. United States Army Military Government Activities in Korea, Summation No. 6, March, 1946. United States Army Forces Pacific, pg. 30.
107 Robert Winstanley-Chesters. 2014. Chapter 4 “Building a Landscape of ”Lived“ Utopia II: Tideland Reclamation” of Environment, Politics and Ideology in North Korea: Landscape as a Political Project. Lanham, MD: Lexington Press.
108 Rodong Sinmun. 2020. “Pak Pong Ju Inspects Newly Completed Ansok Tideland.” Rodong Sinmun, September 16th, 2020.
109 Rodong Sinmun. 2021. “Kim Tok Hun Inspects Third and Fourth Districts of Ryongmaedo Tideland.” Rodong Sinmun, April 30th, 2021,
110 Jongseong Ryu et al. 2014. “The Saemangeum Tidal Flat: Long-term Environmental and Ecological Changes in Marine Benthic Flora and Fauna in Relation to the Embankment.” Ocean & Coastal Management 102: 559-571.
111 Yoshikuni, Hodoki and Tetsuo Murakami. 2006. “Effects of Tidal Flat Reclamation on Sediment Quality and Hypoxia in Isahaya Bay.” Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 16 (6): 555-567.
112 James Orr et al. 2005. “Anthropogenic Ocean Acidification over the Twenty-First Century and its Impact on Calcifying Organisms.” Nature 437, no. 7059: 681.
113 Gian-Reto Walther et al. 2002. “Ecological Responses to Recent Climate Change.” Nature 416 (6879): 389.
114 Jakobina Arch. 2018. Bringing Whales Ashore: Oceans and the Environment of Early Modern Japan. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
115 Ove Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2007. Coral reefs Under Rapid Climate Change and Ocean Acidification. Science 318, no. 5857: 1737–1742.
116 Thatje Tatje et al. 2005.“Challenging the Cold: Crabs Reconquer the Antarctic. Ecology 86 (3): 619–625.
117 Imogen Calderwood. 2018. “88% of People Who Saw ‘Blue Planet 2‘ Have now Changed Their Lifestyle.” Global Citizen, November 1st, 2018,. Accessed 27 Apr 2019.
118 Evan Howell et al. 2012. “On North Pacific Circulation and Associated Marine Debris Concentration.” Marine Pollution Bulletin 65(1–3): 16–22.
119 Hong Zhou et al. 2007. “Changes in the Shelf Macrobenthic Community over Large Temporal and Spatial Scales in the Bohai Sea, China.” Journal of Marine Systems 67 (3-4): 312-321.
120 Toshitaka Gamo. 2011. “Dissolved Oxygen in the Bottom Water of the Sea of Japan as a Sensitive Alarm for Global Climate Change.” TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry 30 (8): 1308-1319.
121 William Jenkins. 2008. “The Biogeochemical Consequences of Changing Ventilation in the Japan/East Sea.” Marine Chemistry 108 (3-4): 137-147.
122 Terence Roehrig. 2009. “North Korea and the Northern Limit Line.” North Korean Review 5 (1): 8-22.
123 Gavan McCormack. 2011. “Contested Waters - Contested Texts: Storm over Korea's West Sea,” Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 9.8.5.
124 Robert Winstanley-Chesters. 2020. Fish, Fishing and Community in North Korea and Neighbours: Vibrant Matters. Singapore: Springer, pg. 140-141.
125 Ibid, pg, 174-175.
126 Nak-chung Paik 2011. Division System in Crisis: Essays on Contemporary Korea. Berkeley: University of California Press.