As the world marks World Fisheries Day today, Australia celebrates with the release of fifty years of fisheries history preserved in digital format through the National Library of Australia's online service, Trove.
Australia has a long history and reputation for its fisheries science and management. This is now documented and available for the world to see following the complete preservation of the historical Fisheries News-Letter. This publication provides a chronology of Australian fisheries development post-World War 2.
The preservation of this publication and its subsequent mastheads 'Australian Fisheries Newsletter' and 'Australian Fisheries' was funded by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC), in partnership with the National Library of Australia and it allowed the digitisation of 593 issues of the newsletter from October 1941 to June 1995, now available online, for free, through the Library's Trove portal.
The series encompasses the development and ultimate demise of the whaling industry, including the Commonwealth's promotion of shore-station whaling. The army fishing unit and call for tinned seafood to provide nourishment for the Australian soldiers. It also describes the initiation and progress of 'Commonwealth' fisheries such as those for Southern Bluefin Tuna, northern prawns, deep-water trawl-fish and pearls.
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