Marine scholars have come to realize the importance of including historical perspectives as part of comprehensive assessments made of the social–ecological systems involved in sustainable fisheries management. In particular, there is increasing recognition of the value in examining information contained within historical anecdotes as a prelude to implementing current conservation actions as well as setting future restoration objectives. The present study demonstrates that careful parsing of eyewitness accounts of unidentified marine objects which at the time were purported to be sea serpents—of the “many‐humped” or “string‐of‐buoys” typology—actually reveals that marine fauna in the British Isles have been victims of entanglement in fishing gear for a much longer period than is customarily assumed. The temporal baseline for the onset of entanglement in this region certainly predates, by more than a century, the advent and widespread use of plastic in fisheries and other maritime operations.

中文翻译：

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捕鱼压力的历史轶事：误解的“海蛇”目击事件为不列颠群岛海洋生物群系的前期纠缠提供了证据

海洋学者已经意识到将历史观点纳入对可持续渔业管理所涉及的社会生态系统进行全面评估的重要性。特别是，人们越来越认识到检查历史轶事中包含的信息的价值，以此作为实施当前保护行动以及设定未来恢复目标的序幕。本研究表明，仔细分析未识别的海洋物体的目击证词，这些物体当时被称为海蛇，属于“多头驼”或“浮标”类型，实际上揭示了英国的海洋动物群。岛国长期以来一直是渔具纠缠的受害者。