THE PRACTICAL USES OF FISHERIES HISTORY

Fisheries history has four practical uses. First, it helps us avoid ba d decisions by providing a long-term vision of what we have tried and how it has worked. Second, history provides an accurate perspective on the development of our profession, verifying that conditions are neit her as bad nor as good as they seem. Third, history informs the invent ory stage of strategic planning, providing the baselines for setting m anagement goals and objectives. Fourth, historical information can be used as experiments to address long-term ecological and management que stions. Because of these uses, we must preserve our current work-gray literature, survey data, museum specimens, personal diaries and recoll ections-as the history of the future.