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The Great Fish Market, painted by Jan Brueghel the Elder. Fishing is a prehistoric practice dating back at least 70,000 years. Since the 16th century, fishing vessels have been able to cross oceans in pursuit of fish, and since the 19th century it has been possible to use larger vessels and in some cases process the fish on board.
For the Spanish Basque region (Biscay and Gipuzkoa) the peak was reached in the second half of the 16th century, but as early as the end of the same century it was in decline. Subsequently, an increase in whaling activity appears to have occurred in Cantabria , Asturias, and Galicia in the first half of the 17th century.
At first, Basque fishermen only visited the islands seasonally during the fishing season, but by the mid-17th century, permanent French residences existed on the islands. From the end of the 17th century, English attacks led to the island's French settlers abandoning Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and the British took possession from 1713 to 1763.
Basques and whaling have an intimate history; the first accounts of Basque whaling dates back to the 670s when the Basques of Labourd sold 40 jars of whale oil.Basques came to hunt whales especially, in the Bay of Biscay in the 16th century, using techniques learned from the Vikings and Normans who plundered the Basque country, formerly named Vasconia in 844.
The North American east coast developed in part due to the vast amount of cod, and many cities in the New England area spawned near cod fishing grounds. New England profited greatly from the golden trade route between England, Africa, the West Indies, and New England in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The grounds of the abbey also contain a monks' fishing house, probably built in the 15th or 16th century, [citation needed] on an island in the River Cong leading towards nearby Lough Corrib. The house is built on a platform of stones over a small arch which allows the river to flow underneath the floor.
Commercial whaling in Great Britain began late in the 16th century and continued after the 1801 formation of the United Kingdom and intermittently until the middle of the 20th century. The trade was broadly divided into two branches. The northern fishery involved hunting the bowhead whale off the coast of Greenland and adjacent islands.
The first undisputed presence of Basque whaling expeditions in the New World was in the second quarter of the 16th century. It appears to have been the French Basques, following the lead of Breton cod-fishermen that reported finding rich whaling grounds in Terranova (Newfoundland).