The book Fisken i forskningen is geographically based on West Sweden and its natural interaction with the sea areas of Kattegat, Skagerrak, the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean and the associated coastal areas.

The West Swedish and interdisciplinary perspective on the history of fishing opens up a research area that has been neglected since the Second World War. The major herring fishing periods have been highlighted, but the history of fishing is more complex and is characterized by mobility and adaptation and the ability to cope with extensive economic fluctuations.

Olof Hasslöf's 1949 dissertation Svenska västkustfiskarna: studier i en en yrkesgrupps näringsliv och kultur (Swedish West Coast Fishermen: Studies in the Economy and Culture of a Professional Group) remains the standard work on the history of fishing. Hasslöf's work is encyclopedically detailed in terms of the importance of fishing for social organization and values. However, it lacks a new problematizing and multidisciplinary perspective on the history of fishing that highlights the importance of the many and crucial links between countries around Skagerrak and Kattegat.

The publication will highlight fishing practices and how the fishermen themselves perceived their work situation. In the same spirit, the publication will also highlight the gender perspective and the need to highlight the role of women in maritime culture in research.

It is high time that the problems of fisheries are highlighted from different subject perspectives and that knowledge of the multifaceted archive material is broadened.