Improving Finnish fisheries—aquaculture policies and practices in Finland from the 1850s to the 1960s

Abstract In the advent of the twenty-first century, Finnish people consume fish that is either imported or farmed. A century earlier, most fish consumed was local and wild. Following the modernisation of agriculture that begun in the 1870s, nascent aquaculture was enthusiastically discussed as a method to rationalise fishing. Aquaculture was considered as a novel solution to support the stocks of the most valuable native species and to introduce new fish species for human consumption. Yet commercial aquaculture changed to hatching as the best method for replenishing local fisheries. Local landowners moreover continued to transfer regionally valuable fish species achieving marked success in supporting local fisheries and in creating new fisheries, too. This article analyses the evolution of aquaculture in Finland from the early 1850s to the late 1960s. The improvement of Finnish fisheries was portrayed in a new scientific discourse of fishing as manipulation of fish stocks to increase annual catches. Native fish species were classified according to their commercial value. Hence, the scientific discussion of fishing and aquaculture shared similar policy aims but different practical means. This article thus depicts the main trends and changes in the (pre)history of Finnish aquaculture addressing a rarely discussed theme in environmental history by looking how life beneath the waves has been manipulated. The article ponders upon, why fish farming was introduced and how it changed during the period studied. Whilst discussing the evolution of aquaculture, the article also analyses which species were considered suitable for farming and how the species classification changed.