The fisherman with a south-west wind on a small rolling fishing boat with a spark plug engine is an ideal image of fishing for many people. However, the reality, both past and present, is far from that ideal. Vessels and fishing methods have undergone many dramatic periods of change where both technology and organization have changed fundamentally. One of the most radical periods of change has occurred in our own time. Fishing is now strictly regulated and modern technology has made it possible to monitor the activity of vessels at sea. The quota system has driven the trend towards larger and fewer fishing vessels, which makes it easier to control fishing and creates a motivation for fishermen to stay within the regulations as they are keen to keep their catch quotas. Today, quotas, politics and marine ecology are driving the change in fishing, what are the driving forces over the past centuries? This project aims to investigate the period 1700 to today and see how catches, techniques, financing and organization have changed the fishery along the Swedish west coast. In the first stage of the project, the emphasis is on investigating the extent of the catches and which fish species were interesting to catch. During the four hundred years that the project intends to investigate, herring plays a central role. Past herring fishing periods are usually well known, but even today herring is of great economic importance and herring quotas are among the most sought after by fishermen.