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NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES

CHAPTER I

THE FISHING GROUNDS OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC

The consideration of the fishing grounds embraces the geographical range of important food-fish, the kinds of fish found in a particular locality, the nature of the ocean bottom, whether muddy, sandy or rocky, and the depth and temperature of the water. Fishing grounds are inshore or offshore, according as they are adjacent to the coast or lie at considerable distances from the mainland. Inshore grounds are creeks, rivers, bays, harbors and nearby shoals. Offshore grounds are banks that may be elevated portions of coasts that have been submerged, like the small banks of the Gulf of Maine; or a part of the continental shelf, of which George's Bank off the east coast of Massachusetts is an example; or submarine plateaus, as the Grand Bank of Newfoundland.

For purposes of this work the fishing grounds of the North Atlantic may be divided into three parts: the northernmost part, including Iceland, extends from Davis Strait southward along the east coast of Labrador to Cape Race in Newfoundland; the second part is more irregular in form, and is included between Cape Race and Montauk Point, Long Island; a third part occupies an unbroken stretch from Long Island to Cape Florida. The grounds extend over forty degrees of latitude from 65° to 25° north latitude. The distance from Holsteinborg in Green

land to Cape Race is 1,600 miles, and from Cape Race southwest to Cape Florida is 2,400 miles.

DAVIS STRAIT AND ICELAND.

In Davis Strait the fishing grounds are less clearly defined than in any other part with the possible exception of the Icelandic grounds. The principal edible fish taken is the halibut; others are the lump-fish, the Norway haddock and the capelin. Cod are so scarce that it is not profitable to catch them for market. The banks of the Strait extend from latitude 68° to 63°, they are from 20 to 40 miles from the mainland and slope abruptly on their inner or eastern edges. Their surface is of varied character, though generally rocky with scattered sandy and muddy spots. They range in depth from 20 to 50 fathoms, a condition that makes fishing easier than on the Grand Bank of Newfoundland where the fish are found in deeper water. During the months of July and August, the season is most favorable for fishing both on account of the temperature, which ranges from 40° to 45°, and the greater abundance of fish that move to and from the banks during these months. Owing to the peculiarities of the tidal currents in Davis Strait fishing is rendered impossible for five or six hours at a time; as the nights in this latitude are light enough to permit fishing at all hours in July, it is possible for the fishermen to select the most convenient time for their work, and to take their rest when the tides are running. The principal harbors for fishermen on the Greenland shore are Sukkertoppen, Goothaab Fiord and Holsteinborg.

The first American vessel to visit Iceland for fish was the Membrino Chief, of Gloucester, which went on a salt halibut voyage in 1873.1 The failure of the venture in

1 Fishermen's Memorial and Record Book, p. 96.

fluenced other American vessels to avoid the region for a decade. In 1884 three American vessels made successful voyages and brought back valuable information concerning the fishing grounds of Iceland and the abundance of cod and halibut in the vicinity. The natives fish invariably within the three-mile limit. The American vessels found better fishing from 5 to 25 miles offshore. The character of the bottom was described as rough, broken and "catchy." The currents are very irregular and uncertain, usually not faster than one mile an hour, the general trend being back and forth along the coast. Very rough weather is experienced on these grounds during some seasons, and at times fishing operations are suspended by the floe-ice that is driven on the coast. The halibut are much larger than those caught at Greenland; and are principally of the white variety, while the Greenland halibut are nearly all gray.

LABRADOR AND EASTERN NEWFOUNDLAND.

As early as 1758 a description of the fishing grounds of the coast of Labrador 1 was given by the captain of an American fishing vessel that visited the coast during the previous summer. The account was as follows:

"The coast is full of islands, many of them large, capable of great improvement as they have more or less good harbors, abounding in fish and seal, water and land fowls, good land covered with woods, in which are great numbers of fur beasts of the best kind. Along the coast are many excellent harbors, very safe from storms; in some are islands, with sufficient depth of water for the largest vessels to ride between, full of codfish, and rivers with plenty of salmon, trout and other fish."

More than a century elapsed before a more complete account of the coast was obtained by a representative of 1 Massachusetts Historical Society Collections for 1792.

the Newfoundland government; in recent years, the work and writings of Dr. Grenfell have added greatly to our knowledge of the Labrador coast. A succession of deep, narrow fiords along the coast has for an outer fringe a vast multitude of islands about twenty-five miles in stretch from the mouths of the fiords seaward. About fifteen miles outside these fringing islands are numerous banks and shoals, the feeding ground of cod from the middle of June to October, while outside the shoals there appears to be a second range of banks, where, probably, the cod feed in winter. This island-studded area forms an immense codfishing ground, which has been estimated at 5,200 square miles in area.

The mean length of the fishing season for cod over four degrees of latitude on the northeastern coast of Newfoundland has been estimated to be 142 days, for southern Labrador over three degrees of latitude it is 87 days, and for northern Labrador over three and one-half degrees of latitude it is 52 days. The cod does not travel far in its annual migration on this coast. After the spawning season the fish retires to deeper water offshore. Each year the cod returns to its birthplace with the school, and haunts the same neighborhood the short season of its inshore life. The school of cod arrives on the coast about a week later for every degree of latitude farther north. For a period of about forty days the codfishing goes on simultaneously during August and September throughout the length of a coast line, extending from latitude 47° to latitude 58° 30', or more than 700 miles.1

No fishing banks are found off the east coast of Newfoundland, but the coast furnishes a vast area for boatfishing for cod. Squid, capelin and herring abound and are taken mainly for use as bait to be sold to French and

1 Grenfell, Labrador, pp. 297-327; Goode, The Fishery Industries of the United States, Sec. III, pp. 12–13.

American bank-fishermen. In this region the fishing is carried on from near the middle of June to the first week in November. On the Newfoundland coast as well as on the Labrador fishing grounds the fishermen employ the cod trap for catching the fish. The contrivance is a large room with floor and walls of twine arranged with an opening on the landward side through which schools of cod may enter but can not pass out again. As many as one hundred quintals of cod have been caught at one haul on many occasions; on the other hand, a whole fishing season may pass without a school of cod entering the trap.

CAPE RACE TO MONTAUK POINT.

From Flemish Cap, a fishing ground, 8° E.N.E. of Cape Race, to Montauk Point, are found the most famous and valuable fishing grounds of American waters. The shore line of this section of the coast is exceedingly irregular, deeply indented with gulfs and bays, fiords, harbors and inlets. It is a rock-bound coast, beautiful throughout its extent, formerly occupied exclusively by the humble cottages of the fishermen, now fast becoming dotted with substantial summer residences residences of wealthy American families. The drumlin-islands of Boston harbor and the fiord-harbors of southern Maine still attest the influence of the glacial epoch and the subsequent sinking of the coast. A strong current from the Arctic Ocean encounters the Gulf Stream off the southeast coast of Newfoundland. It is checked in its course, its bergs are devoured by the warm stream from the South, and it is forced to the westward. The cold current follows along the south coast of Newfoundland until it reaches Cape Breton Island where it divides, sending one branch into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and another along the Nova Scotia coast until it is finally lost in the Gulf of Maine.

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