Resilience, survival, defiance. The fishing communities on the coast of colonial Malta, 1840-1890

Abstract

Previously dominant historiography has considered the Mediterranean Sea as not being particularly productive in terms of fish sticks in general when compared to other oceans - with, for instance, Fernand Braudel acknowledging that this sea was inadequate in resources. Such a 'low productivity' perspective continued to influence the bulk of scholarly research being carried out, even that dealing with the period following the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, which initiated the process of Lessepsian migration that led to an inflow of fish from the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, thus increasing the variety of species to be found in Mediterranean waters. Though not directly countering this prevalent historical view, historical studies have honed their research on the coastal zones bordering the Atlantic Ocean, together with the main straits - such as those of Gibraltar, Messina, and the Bosporus - reputed to be as relatively plentiful in quantities of fish. The most attention has indeed been placed on the specialised fishing in some of these zones, with studies focusing on Andalusian, French, and Genoese fishing and processing of anchovy or tuna - with the renowned Sicilian mattanza attracting more recent research. Besides these much detailed localised studies, it has taken long for a more comprehensive historical outlook on regional fisheries to emerge - this having occurred only recently with the publication of cutting-edge and theoretically elaborate studies, the best of which encompass a wide eco-historical, socioenvironmental dimension. Influenced in various measures by the pioneering work of Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell, this fresh historiographical perspective - increasingly trans-disciplinary and comparative - gives attention to the microregional historical fluctuations of fish stocks and other resources in the various seas of the Mediterranean in relation to the nutritional requirements and subsistence strategies of coastal and fishing communities.