Testing for a Temperature Effect on an Early Catch Record

In conjunction with early climate records, catch records from pre-industrialfisheries are a potentially valuable sourceof information about the effect of climate on fisheries. This paper describesa test for a temperature effect on an18th century catch record of Icelandic cod. The results of the test, which isbased on a model that incorporatesboth internal population dynamics and a potential temperature effect, supportthe existence of a temperature effect.