Working Group on the History of Fish and Fisheries (WGHIST)

The ICES Working Group on the History of Fish and Fisheries (WGHIST), chaired by Ruth Thurstan, UK, and Emily Klein, USA, brings together researchers from multiple disciplines to discuss and undertake research into the timing, scale, and drivers of social-ecological change in marine and fisheries systems over multi-decadal to centennial time-scales. The 2018 WGHIST meeting convened in Brest, France, 4–7 September, and was hosted by the Université de Bretagne Occidentale, the Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, and the Laboratoire des sciences de l'Environnement MARin. Twelve participants attended in person, representing ten institutions across seven countries in Europe and North America. Three participants from Ireland and the United States attended remotely for part or all of the meeting.The meeting opened with a public symposium and evening reception at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale, attended by approximately 45 people. WGHIST members also took part in a pre-meeting field trip to the Station Marine de Concarneau, the oldest marine station still operating in Europe, and several visits to government archival collections over the course of the week.In addition to these activities, the 2018 meeting focused on progressing the WGHIST Terms of Reference (ToRs). Members presented and discussed on-going and recently completed research related to the ToRs, additional sources of metadata to be included in the ICES Data Centre online portal, opportunities to enhance the visibility of historical data to ICES scientists and the wider scientific community, and ongoing and potential future multi-author manuscripts.