A study of eel fishing settlements by Kalmarsund

This graduate thesis concerns the built environment created by the lucrative eel fishing in Kalmarsund, by the Swedish east coast. The main topic of this thesis is to seek an understanding between the natural environment and the cultural environment as they together create the foundations for the evolution of eel fishing settlements. The methods used in the research include interviews, inventories and studies of literature on the subject. In 2007 a prohibition on eel fishing was imposed due to near extinction of the European eel. Along with the prohibition many eel fishing settlements went out of use. Only a few eel fishermen continue to fish eel with a special license from the Swedish state. The thesis also seeks to discuss the problem with the no longer used buildings and the future of these. Since the eighteenth century there has been a development of small fishing settlements consisting of sheds along the coast. The sheds stores tools and appliances for fishing. In the late eighteen hundreds eel fishing went from being a part of the local farmer’s economy to be a small industry with intensive export to Germany and Western Europe. The trade resulted in new builds and more fishing settlement. In the early twentieth century the introduction of the eel gill made the eel fishing even more lucrative and a new kind of big shed became the characteristic building for an eel fishing settlement. In the nineteenth seventies the population of European ell started to drop and by the turn of the century the eel was almost instinct. The thesis result shows a distinct connection between the evolution of fishing tools and buildings. It also points to the fact that the use of the buildings for aquaculture is the best possible way for preserving the built environment created from eel fishingUppsats för avläggande av filosofie kandidatexamen i Kulturvård, Bebyggelseantikvariskt program 15 hp Institutionen för kulturvård Göteborgs universitet 2014:1