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Fishing Measures investigates the introduction of fisheries science to Newfoundland’s saltfishery between the 1880s and 1930s. Banoub argues that during this period fishers’ embodied knowledge came to be seen as less reliable and authoritative than modern scientific state management. Fishing Measures situates this crucial shift in the history of capitalism, showing how the development of abstract scientific knowledge is integral to capitalist value relations.

Banoub trawls a variety of archival sources to document the introduction of scientific knowledge to the extraction, processing, and consumption of saltfish. The book lucidly documents scientific developments on subjects ranging from artificial propagation, to curing techniques, to cod liver oil production. Fishing Measures makes an invaluable contribution to contemporary debates regarding relationships between capitalism, the environment, and science.

Daniel Banoub is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Geography at Memorial University. His work examines the historical geography of resource extraction in Newfoundland and Labrador through the lens of Marx’s critique of political economy. He completed his PhD at the University of Manchester, and has held positions in Anthropology, Geography, and History at Memorial University.