Introduction | Oceans in Three Paradoxes
Introduction to the virtual exhibition Oceans in Three Paradoxes: Knowing the Blue through the Humanities.
Introduction to the virtual exhibition Oceans in Three Paradoxes: Knowing the Blue through the Humanities.
Ismaning Reservoir: A Wastewater Lake changes its Feathers? At the Ismaning Reservoir, approximately an hour by bike northeast of Marienplatz, the interplay between humans and nature is evident. It is not possible to swim in the lake. But it does more than just store water for Munich’s power generation facilities. It also provides a habitat for many species.
In this chapter of their virtual exhibition “‘Commanding, Sovereign Stream’: The Neva and the Viennese Danube in the History of Imperial Metropolitan Centers,” the authors describe fish resources in St. Petersburg and Vienna and their role in urban life from different perspectives. Fisheries constituted an important part of local economic activities and fishers—both poor professionals and wealthy leisure anglers—were very visible in the cities’ crowds, at their markets, and on the banks of their rivers and canals.
This exhibition shows some of the many links between the Neva River in St. Petersburg and the Viennese Danube discovered during the joint Russian-Austrian research project “The Long-Term Dynamics of Fish Populations and Ecosystems of European Rivers.”
In this chapter of their virtual exhibition “‘Commanding, Sovereign Stream’: The Neva and the Viennese Danube in the History of Imperial Metropolitan Centers,” the authors discuss how the growing population required a lot of food and fish was significant part of the city dwellers’ diets. Social stratification led to the clear division between fish commodities for the wealthy and those for poor citizens, though some kinds of fish could be popular among all dwellers, regardless of social differences.