At the invitation Prof. Bao Maohong, vice director of Maritime Strategic Research Center, Dr. Poul Holm, former chairman of the European Society for Environmental History(ESEH) visited Peking University Institute of Ocean Research on June 26, 2016.

Dr. Poul Holm

In the afternoon of June 26,  Professor Wang Lei briefly introduced the basic duties and research progress of Peking University Institute of Ocean Research. Dr. Poul Holm introduced the NorFish GIS 2016-2020 project and the Oceans Past Platform. The two sides also discussed the potential cooperation areas and specific research trends, hoping to enhance mutual friendship and broaden cooperation channels.

On June 27, Dr. Poul Holm gave two lectures with the topic of "Human history and the Ocean: a scientific historical turn"and "The North Atlantic Fisheries, from 1400 to 1700".

Dr. Holm suggested that human tended to depend on the ocean, but at the same time, human appeared to know little about the ocean. He showed a list of methodologies for the study of maritime history, including estimating the general amount of fish, analysis of shell mound and fish bones, utilization of logbook, etc. Dr. Holm took Norfish as an example to demonstrate seven cases about the exploration of marine environmental history, using the methodology of combination by quantitative method and qualitative method. He stressed that it is a general trend to conduct interdisciplinary cooperation about the research of marine environmental history in the future.

The Audience