History of fishing in Croatia

Croatian fishing is mentioned for the first time in 995 in a donation document with which the Zadar nobility, at the time of Prior Madi (986–999), gifted to the Benedictine monastery of St. Chrysogonus (Krševan) in Zadar the fishing posts near the Molat island and in the Telašćica bay on the island of Dugi otok. During the rule of the Croatian national rulers, fishing in Croatia was thriving. Dating from that time are the rules on mutual relations in fishing and division of the catch adopted by a group of associated fishermen with Croatian names.

After the decline of the Croatian Kingdom, with the arrival of the Arpadovići (1102), in the next three centuries the fishing in Croatia was almost extinct. The cause for this was the continental mentality of the rulers on one side, who never grasped the meaning of the sea and its riches for the life of the people on the coast and the islands, and the non-resentment policy of the continental power to Venice, whose fleet at the time ruled the Adriatic, on the other. The fishing tragedy of the Croats on the Adriatic started after 1409 with the sale of Dalmatia to Venice. Torn away from their natural hinterland, the Dalmatian towns regressed and Croatia lost its maritime country status and declined economically.

Neither the first (1797–1805) nor the second (1815–1918) Austrian rule of Dalmatia improved the situation in the Croatian fisheries. It mostly prevented the organization of fishing as well as the regulation of fishing, declaring the sea free for all and everyone, which benefited the Italian fishermen and harmed the interests of Croatia. The French rule in Dalmatia was too short and the started reforms in fishing could not succeed. During the first and second Yugoslavia, from 1918 until 1990, the conditions did not change significantly and the cession of the Croatian fishing seas to Italy continued, which was confirmed with the Italy-Yugoslavia Treaty (1948) that was of benefit to the Italian fishermen harming the Croatian fishing and economic interests.

The use of light in fishing the small blue fish, along with the use of the seine in the Adriatic, is mentioned in the Statute of Dubrovnik from 1272. The fishing of sardines on the eastern coast of the Adriatic developed strongly in the 16^th century with the application of seines under the light and gillnets. The fishermen from the islands of Šibenik fished sardines at the start of the 16^th century and exported them salted to the Western coast of the Adriatic. At the start of the 17^th century, around the islands of Cres and Lošinj, huge industrial fishing of sardines developed. The most important fishing town in Istria is Rovinj, whose fishing economy strongly developed in the 18^th century creating the main material basis for the progress of the people of Rovinj. The oldest records (1331) on tuna fishing in the Adriatic originate from Pula. The use of tuna seiners in the Croatian littoral zone intensified particularly from the middle of the 15^th century. More standing tuna fishing seiners in the Bakar Bay, Vinodol channel and on the island of Krk were owned by the Zrinski and Frankopan, while there were mobile tuna seiners in the port of Šibenik and in the Ston channel.

The Croatian fishermen and fish breeders made multiple significant innovative contributions to the fishing practice in the world. Inventions such as the Puretić mechanical pulley were revolutionary in the tuna fishing and generally in fishing blue fish in the world. More recently, Croatia has been recognised as one of the pioneers in mariculture, in particular in the controlled cage breeding of sea bass and gilt-head bream and new breeding solutions in breeding juvenile tuna in cages.