Marine Harvests Made to Order
Dr. Glenn Jones, with the assistance of
Ocean and Coastal Resources undergraduate students Deena Loy
‘06 and Jennifer Reed ’07 are plotting marine harvests over
the last 150 years through restaurant menus. With menus
dating back to the 1850s, Jones and his students are
charting inflation-adjusted seafood prices from menus
shedding light on the shifting tastes for and supplies of
such popular seafood as lobster, swordfish, abalone,
oysters, halibut, haddock and sole.
Although still at an early stage, the research already shows
a dramatic correlation between over-harvested fish and
seafood stocks and price.
“Prior to the 1880s, it was unusual to see lobster on menus
at all except in bargain-priced lobster salad,” noted Dr.
Jones. “It was considered a trash fish no one wanted—it was
not something you would want to be seen eating. In fact, in
Colonial America, servants negotiated agreements that they
were not to be forced to eat lobster more than twice a
week.”
Among other observations gained from the archived menus:
oyster prices remained relatively flat for about 100 years,
then climbed at twice the inflation rate starting in the
1950s when mechanized fishing began occurring.
The price of a wild canvasback duck meal rose from today’s
equivalent of $20 in the 1860s to $100 in 1910 as stocks
collapsed. Professional hunters harvested up to 1,000 per
day to supply restaurants. According to Dr. Jones, this
fostered the federal government’s decision to outlaw the
commercial slaughter of migratory birds in 1913.
“As supplies dropped and prices rose, some of these species
becam a status symbol. It seems to confirm that many people
simply want to eat something that is rare,” commented Dr.
Jones.
Over 200,000 restaurant menus have been uncovered by Dr.
Jones and his students in various archives, primarily in New
England and New York.
“When you think about it, a menu was a price of ephemera, it
wasn’t meant to be saved. But, thankfully, some people
collected them. We believe this is the first time anyone has
tried to work with this trove of historical information.”
If you or someone you know has access to menus, please
contact Dr. Glenn Jones at
glennj@tamug.edu. He is looking for more menus to
include in his research.
