Overfishing, cooling and social change linked to 1570s Baltic herring fishery collapse

Researchers writing in Nature Sustainability reconstructed western Baltic herring catches from 1200 to 1650 using fragmentary records and other indicators. They conclude that overfishing shrank the stock, but its decline alone did not bring down the Sound fishery. Cooling, damaged fishing infrastructure, a reduced workforce and competition from cheaper North Sea herring also contributed to its collapse from the 1570s.