A Brief History of the New Eng land Offshore Fisheries

By

Albert C. Jensen

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE BUREAU OF COMMERCIAL FISHERIES Fishery Leaflet 594 NIT TAT P RTM T T ~ I

and 1 ark-

FI HAD WILDLIFE ERVI E, larenc F. Paut ~ k , omnn 8J.O ,ur

BUREAU OF O MM ERCIAL FI BERIE. onald L. :'.lcK rn an, Dir dor

A Brief History of the New England Offshore Fisheries

By

ALBER T C. JENSEN

Fishery Leaflet 594

Washington, D . C . March 1967 CONTENTS

Page

The cod fishery 1

Fishing areas 1

Fish abundance 1

Fishing gear 2

Hand lines ...... 0 2

Line trawl ...... 0 • • • • • • • • • • • • 3

Gill net s ...... 0 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 5

Beam trawl ••••...••. 6

Otter trawl...... 6

Landings and utilization. . • • . • • . • . • . • . • • • • 7

Other fisheries 8

Haddock ...... 0 ••••••••••••••• • ••• 0 8

Ocean perch ...... 0 • 0 • • • • • • • • • • • • 9

Whiting ...... 0 • • • • • • 9

Flound er 5 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 9

Sea scallops ...... 10

Industrial fishery. • • . • • • • • • . . • • . • • . . . •• 11

Sum m.a ry . . . 0 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 0 • • •• 12

Literatur e cited ...... 12

A pp end ix...... 0 0 • • • • • • • • • • 0 • 0 • • • • • • • • • • 14

111 A Brief History of the New England Offshore Fis heries

By

ALBER T C. JENSEN,l Fishe ry Biologist

Bureau of Commercial Fishe ries Biological Laboratory Woods Hole , Mass. 02543

ABSTR ACT

The leaflet des c r ibes the origin and subseque nt development of s ever al of the principal offshore fisheries of New England. It trac e s the industry fr om the Colonial period when the chief catch was cod to the present day wh en a variet y of species is caught and mar keted. The fishing gear is d e scribed and illustrate d, and t echnological d evelopments in handling the catch at s e a and ashore ar e briefly explained .

INTRODUCTION (Taylor, 1957 ). By the early 17th Century, the New England colonists were hsh10g for The first settlers of New England arrived cod in the local wat e rs. In 1624, not less there to " . • serve their God and to fish " than 50 vessels from Glouceste r " fished With (Wheeler, 1955). The success of their fishing hand lines in the offing of Maine and Massa­ efforts was such that the fish supplied the chusetts (Babson, 1860). fir st American articles of export and laid the foundation for worldwide sea navigation and commerce. The earliest fishery was for cod­ Fishing Areas fish. 2 It wa s the only fish sought for food until about 181 8, although s:nall mackerel w e r e The grounds fished in the early days are caug t to bait the cod lines. After 1818, other familiar names today (fig . 1): Jeffreys Ledge, species entered the markets and, b y 1830, Cashes Ledge, Nantucket Shoals, and the macker el, herring, white hake, m enhaden, many small ridges, swells, and holes not d shad, and halibut w e r e taken extensively (Bu­ on hydrographic charts of the region. The reau of Fisheries, 1935.) Later, haddock, scope of the operations soon began to change, whiting, flounders, and ocean perch became however. important in the offshore fisheries and were By 1708 , New England vessels were flsh10g harvested on a grand scale. This review i s the Nova Scotian banks, and 10 174~ the hrst concerned first with the New England fishe ry catch of cod from Georges Bank was landed . for cod and a d e scription of the fishing grounds It was not long before the tnps w re even and the gear. The other major fishe rie s that longer . In 1757, Gloucester vessels v ntured develope d ar e dis c us sed in chronological to the Grand Bank off Newfoundland . Presum ­ order. ably cod were more abundant an I flsh10g was more s uccessful ther e, beca s by 17 as THE COD FISHERY many as 60 Glouc ester boats .\' re flshmg on Grand Bank (Babson, 1 60). Intensive harvesting of the Northwest A tl ant i c cod resource began in the 16 th Century when French and Portuguese vessels Fish Abundance fished the Grand Bank off Newfoundland It seems reasonable to suspect that cod 1. Now Assistant Chief, Bureau of Marine Fisheries, New abundance was low In the local 'ew England York State Conservation Department, Oakdale, L .I., ew waters in the late 18th Century. Few fl her­ York 11 769. men would r isk a long tnp offshore In small, 2 Scientific names are listed in the appendix. wooden vessels if cod were abundant nearby. f ish, t he probleIns were such that it was said of one skipper (Sabine, 1853 ), " ••• the UNITED fear of Inaking a ' broken voyage ' kept hiIn STATES awake and at his post f ull twenty hour s every .,. day throughout the tiIne eInployed in taking f ish. " Toward the close of the 19th Centur y , bank fishing , Inostly on Georges and B r owns ban k s, was a flourishing industry wit h 1 74 dor y schooners taking part. In 1879, the equivalent of 92 Inillion pounds of round fresh cod was landed by the salt- bankers (.Earll, 1880). In 1880, a record was set when 294 Inillion pound s of cod were landed (Sette, 192 8 ). Further details of the landings are discussed oz· '2' later.

., .,' Fishing Gear S OIne of the fluctuations in landings and apparent abundance of fish were caused by '0 40' changes and iInproveInents in the fishing gear . No doubt the earliest kinds of gear used b y ~~...... the New England colonists included weirs

39' and traps (figs . 2, 3) adapted froIn the ones used by the local Indians (BrighaIn, 1962). But the usual kind of gear was the handline fish ed froIn sInall boats in the harbors and ,.. )0' 12' 71' O· 69' 68 67" 66' 60' 64" bays. Figure l.--Some grounds of the New England offshore Handlines.- -Handlines had been us ed f o r fishe ries. The Grand Bank of Newfoundland and some about 200 years aboard the European ves­ of the Nova Scotian banks are not shown here. sels that fished the Grand Bank. At first, the lines were fished froIn the deck of the

DaIns built to supply textile Inills with power were blaIned by Baird (1 8 74) for the scarcity of fish. The daIns blocked the spawning runs of alewives on which the cod f ed, he noted, and when alewife abundance declined, cod abundance also declined. (Biologists know today, of course, that alewives and other fishes forIn only a sInall part of the diet of codfish. Cod feed Inostly on invertebrates. T h us, the decline in the abundance of cod was probably caused by SOIne other factor, perhaps overfishing.) The success of the New England cod fish­ e ries varied greatly over the years. Whereas 6 0 Gloucester vessels fished offshore in 1788, only 8 vessels fished offshore 12 years later. By 1819, the fisheries were in a severe econoInic depression; to help the fis h e rInen, Congress passed a "bounty act"--a forIn of subsidy (Earll, 1880). The act evidently served the purpose. SOIne new vessels were built, and n ew life was put into the industry. Many of the fisherInen's p r obleIns then were 80W L POLES Inuch diffe r ent froIn those in our Inod e r n fleets. Occasionally, only the d regs of t he waterfront were availabl e to crew t h e v e ss e ls. These Inen worked a s lit tle a s possi b le a nd required constant s uper vls lon. Wh en poor creWInen were coupl ed with a s carcit y of Figure 2.--A fish weir or tr ap.

2 vessel (figs. 4, 5) but late r, they wer e fished L ine traw l.- - A b out 1770, the Dutch developed by one- and t w o-man cr ew s in d o rie s (fi g. 6 ) the line trawl (figs. 7 , 8) -- a longline with a carried to the fishing ground by the vess e l ser ies of b a it ed h ooks a t tached at inte rvals (Taylor, 1957). (see J ens en a nd Brigham f o r pres ent-day usage of the gear ). American fishe rm en were somewhat s l ow in adopting the longline, in part becaus e of t he hue and cry that it was a harmful gear (Perley, 1852). Originally called a "bultow," the line trawl was said to cause a school of cod to desert the grounds because fish that had tor n loose from the hooks fright­ ened others . A group of 137 fishermen from Block Island submitted a petition of protest to the U .S. Fish Commission in 1877 (Dodge and others, 1880). The petitioners claimed that, "Suffering from the lacerations of the hook, and fearful of becoming again entrapped, [the cod] communicate their fears to their sym­ pathizing companions." But, New England fishe rmen eventually did adopt the line trawl (Alexander, Moore, and Kendall, 1915) . The trawls at first were set from the vessel but later, as with the hand­ lines, they were set from dorie s . The line trawls efficiently caught all species of ground­ fish except, usually, flounders, ocean perch, Figure 3.--Seining the catch trapped in the bowl of the weir. small haddock, and small cod (Ackerman, 1941).

Figure 4.--Handlining for cod from the deck of a vess el anchored on Georges Bank. (From Goode, 1897.) 3 Figure 5.--Landing the cod caught with handlines. Gaffs were used to haul aboard large fish. (From Goode, 1897.)

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F igure 6.--Handlining f r cod from a dory. (From Goode, 1897.)

4 Gill nets.-- Line trawls w e r e the pr i n cipal fishing gear until Spencer F . Bai rd intro ­ duced Norwegian gill nets (fig. 9 ) to the cod fishery at Cape Ann in 18 78 (Collins, 1887). The nets successfully trapped the cod, b ut the twin was too frail to survi v e the s truggles of th large fish. A second tria l with s tronger gill nets during the w inte r of 1880- 81 in Ipswich Bay was v e ry successful. Gill nets, originally set and hauled by hand from a dory, were not as popular a s line trawls until about 1908, when f ive or six small Great Lakes gill n e tt ers, fully equipped, arrived in Glouceste r from Michigan (Habe rland, 1946). The y us ed a m e c hanical

Figure 8.--Setting out a line trawl from a pre nl- day Figure 7.--A diagram of a Ne w England line tr awl (Or vessel out of Chatham, Mass. The line and Ih~ \tdch ~ longline) as it is fished today. The gear is basically baited hooks arc Cl1pped OUI of the tub with th II hI the same as that used by dorymen 75 year s ago. stick.

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THE GILL·NET COD FISHERY.

1. · tt . v, l..Arg·e tODt,. u W',l for tD OOnD :t. 8 uoS • . Jiooy·hUf>. ~. \1 e t. au" 10 \1.00 .110.'" ale h Fi ure 9.--The orwe ian !1l net as intIodu ed into e En land b) Spenc.er F . Bird In I -; . (i·rom Good • 1 -.)

5 lifter which allowed them to set and haul the nets directly from the vessel. Gill nets gradually came into wider us in New England because they were adaptable to small boats, did not require larg crews , did not need powerful engines in the vessel (as do otter trawls), and were more efficient than the handlines or line trawls (Ackerman, 1941). They were most efficient with th heavy inshore runs of spawnmg fish such as the winter run of cod on the grounds east of Ipswich or the autumn run of pollock near Cape Ann. Handlines and line trawls ar not efficient in those seasons becaus e most spawn­ ing fish do not feed and thus do not bite readIly on the baited hooks . Today, gill nets are fished by a few vessels from Portland, Maine (fig. 10).

Figure 11.--This beam rrawl, used today in some est Coast fisheries, Is not very much different from the ones uS ld nearly 100 years ago. The heavy wooden beam across the tOP of the net gave the gear Its name.

hndmg any concentratIons of fish . In a 3- hour haul she caught 10,000 pounds of haddock " ... together WIth doghsh m troublesome n m ­ bers . " SmIth (l 94) descnbed some of the problems WIth the early beam trawl. The hauls some­ times averaged 12,000 pounds of flsh, but the tWIne burst repeatedly when the load reached IS,OOO pounds . Too much wmd or too little wind made the us e of the beam trawl uncertain. The captaIn considered the trial a success, but his financIal backers would not continue the experiments . A smaller version of the beam trawl, called a drag net, was used in Provincetown harbor in a winter fishery for flounders around the turn of the century. Towns end (190 1) s ta ted that the drag net never achieved widespread use.

Otter trawl.-- Per haps the greatest revolu­ tion in fishing gear wa s the introduction in the Unit ed States of the o tte r trawl (fig. 12) in 1905 (Alexander e t aI., 1915). It was developed from the beam trawl. In 1894, at the British Figure 10.--Hauling a cod aboard a present-day gill netter out of Portland, Maine.

Beam trawl.--The beam trawl (fig. 11) had been known and used in the British Isles since the early 17th Century (Graham, 19S6). In the winter of 1891-92 an attempt was made to establish a beam trawl fishery in New England (Smith, 1894). The 9S-ton vessel Resolute sailed in November 1891 to Middle Bank (Stellwag en Bank), Ipswich Bay, and finally Figure 12.--A diagram of an otter rrawl fishing on the the southern part of Georges Bank before bottom. It was developed from the clumsier beam rrawl.

6 fishing port of Granton, the b eam had been area of the net by placing the otter boards or removed and otter boards attached to each "doors" some distance forward of the net wing (Graham, 1956 ). The otter trawl wa s rathe r than adjacent to it. This arrangement much less cumbersome than the beam trawl greatly i mproved trawling efficiency and in­ and more efficient. creas ed the catches of vessels that fished The trawl underwent no radical improve­ the gear. ments for several decades, but the vessels The otter trawl introduced a new and serious wer e improved (figs. 13, 14). Steam trawle rs problem. Unlike handlines, line trawls, and were first used successfully in France in 1876 gill nets, the otter trawl indiscriminately and in Great Britain in 1881 (Graham, 1956), captured fishes of all sizes, most of which but the first American steam trawle r was the were dead or dying by the time they reached Spray (Alexander et al., 19 15). It had been the ves s el's deck. Any food fish of unmarket­ built for Boston owners on the gene ral plan of able sizes were discarded at sea and lost to British fishing steame rs and introduced the t he fishery (Herrington, 1935, 1936). Efforts otter trawl to the American Continent. to solve this problem have been going on for The first big chang e in o tter trawling was more than half a century and with some the introduction, again from Europe, of the success. In 1952, after extensive res earch Vigneron-Dahl trawl. D eveloped in 1924-28 by Fish and Wildlife Service biologists, a (Graham, 1956), it enlarg ed the effect ive catch r egulation banned t;,e use of trawl nets with a mesh smaller than 4 -1/2 inches in the cod and haddock fishery. This mesh retains the marketable fish but allows most of the small fish to escape.

Landings and Utilization

A detailed summary and history of the New England cod fishery was given by Jensen and Murray (1965). Some excerpts from this summary are noted below. The statistics of the cod fishery portray a segment of an entir e industry that was af­ fected seriously by technological advances and chang ing consumer preferences. The annual New England landings of cod (gutted weight) fr om New England waters during the period 1893-1962 are shown in figure 15. Appropriate conversion factors were used to change landings of dried salt fish, green salt fish, frozen fish, etc ., to a standard of gutted Figure 13.--A large, steel otter trawler of the type that fresh fish, the state in which cod is landed fishes out of Boston. today. The graph is included here because chang es in cod landings generally follow ed the

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Figure 1S.--Annual ew England landings of cod (gutted Figure 14.--A wooden otter trawler, or dragger. Draggers weight) from New England waters during the period fish mostly for whiting, flounders, and industrial fish. 1893- 1962. 7 fluc t uat ions of the entire New England fishing the taste of some; but when dried , it is with ­ industry . For example, the rapid increase in out reputation even in the hut of the [poorest landings in 1905- 06 probably reflects the man], who is doomed to be it s principal con­ introduction of the otter trawl. sumer." Fishing effort was low for all species after The use of ice aboard som of the bank World War I and during the postwar depres­ fishing ves s els toward the clos e of the 19t h sion, a situation that is reflected in the lower Century made more fresh haddock available cod landings in 1914-27. During the 1930's, to a still limited but growing market. From the industry experienced a series of rapid ups 1880 to the early 1900's New England haddock and downs caused by s everal interrelated landings were fairly stable; the average annual factors that included d e creased abundance landings were on the order of about 54 million of fish and a tie-up of vessels as a result of pounds. the general economic depression of all Am e ri­ The greatest boon to the haddock hshery can industry. was the innovation of filleting fish at the port, Recent chang e s in cod landings resulted in Boston, in the autumn of 1921 (White, 1954). from decreas ed fishing effort offshor e in Before then, fish had been hlleted at the retail World War II, a decline in landings in the mark ets to the order of indivldual customers . early 1950's (presumably caused by an m­ Haddock was the fust species in which fillets crease in haddock abundanc e ), and a slight rather than whole hsh were shipped to re­ ris e in cod landmgs in the late 1950' s caus ed tallers. Soon, brand-identlfied fresh fillets by a decline in haddock abundanc e . were offered, followed by packages of frozen From the beginning, the N e w England cod fillets that made haddock available on a catch was split, salted, and dried. Only a nationwide basis. Landings soon lncreased small quantity from the shor e fishe rI e s, and rapldly from about 90 million pounds m 1921 during the winter from the bank fish e ries, to a peak of 294 milhon m 192 9. The bulk of was landed fresh. Salt cod was a staple food the catch came from Georges Bank; some o n b oth sldes of the North Atlantic and had cam e from Browns Bank, antucket Shoals, been one of the first export items from the and the various inshore grounds (fig. 16) . Am e rlcan Colonies. From 1929 to 1934, severe declines of The evolution from a salt cod mark et to a haddock abundance and fishmg effort brought fr e s h and frozen cod market was largely the a marked decrease ln ew England landings . r e sult of technological changes ln handling In 1935 to 1941, however, landings increased the catch at sea and ashore. Improved ice­ because of an increase in haddock abundance makmg machines, the improvement m fishing and fishing effort on Georges Bank. In the gear, and the transition to steam and diesel 1940's, landings of haddock from Georges engines made it possible for the vessels to Bank were about 100 million pounds per year, take larger quantities of fish and brmg but during the 1950's landings declined to the catch to market rapidly and in good about 83 million pounds per year. The level condition. of abundance on Georges Bank today is slightly Shortly after World War I, Clarence Birds­ below that of the 1940's. eye, in Gloucester, and Harden F. Taylor of the Bureau of Fisheries, developed quick­ fre e zing processes that were readily adapt­ able to freezing fish. The industry then began to market qUlck-frozen, boneless, ready- for­ the-pan fillets that soon changed the public's taste from salt to fresh fish. ow, species that did not salt well--haddock and ocean pe!·ch- - could be filleted and frozen. It was not long before new markets blossomed for the products.

OTHER FISHERIES

Haddock

In the heyday of the salt- banker s, haddock were considered tra s h fi s h t o be a v oided when pos sible, discard ed when una voidable , o r salte d only a s a l ast res o rt. Sab ine (1 8 5 3 ) n o t e d : Figure 16.--Dressing haddock on board a trawler out of "The hake and haddock ar e poor fish, and Boston. The fish will be stored in ice in the hold, neither commands m o r e than half the price filleted ashore, and sold to the consumer as fresh or of the c od • •.. The haddock, when fresh, suits frozen fillets.

8 Ocean Perch Whiting

The Cinderella of New England commer­ Whiting (silver hake) is now used in more cial fishes is the ocean perch (Haberland, 1946). d iffe rent ways than is any other single species Few were caught on the old hook-and-line (Fritz, 1960). Not only is it widely consumed gear, but the otter trawl began to make som e as human food, but it is reduced for meal and inroads on the, until then, unexploited stocks. oil, and is an important part of animal food The ocean perch, with its spiny projections, pr eparations. It was not always so; a century was unsuitable for salting, and most of thos e or more ago whiting was discarded as trash. that were caught were discard ed as trash. Provincetown fishermen of the time were Before World War I, a few million pounds plagued during July and August when large were landed each year in Europe for the fresh quantities of whiting were caught in the nets fish market. After the war, som e also was set for mackerel. Often it took 8 to 10 hours sold fresh in the United State s, but t he ocean to clear the nets of the unwanted fish. Although perch was never a great competitor in the whiting was abundant, there was no market market for salt cod and, later, fresh haddock. for it. It did not salt well and unless it was The situation changed radically, however, in kept cold, o r eaten soon after capture, the the middle 1930's. By chance, a fish cutter flesh became soft and tasteless . found that the ocean perch yield ed a small Beginning about 1840, a small, local fishery white fillet with a taste and texture similar started for fr esh whiting (Storer, 1867). Later, to fresh-water perch. The product found a the species was used as bait in a hook-and­ ready market in the Middle West and South line fishery for spiny dogfish. (Presumably the where the taste of yellow perch was familiar. dogfish were intended for guano and oil.) Changing the name of the p r oduct to flOC ean Real interest in whiting appeared about perch" (it is sometimes also marketed as 1920 when limited amounts were shipped to rosefish) incr e ased its acc eptance. Thus, a fried - fish shops in and around St. Louis, Mo. whole new fishery was born. (Johnson, 1932). An active food fishery, how­ The filleting of ocean p e rch o r iginated in ever, did not begin until the 1930's. Boston, but space was insufficient for handling At first, whiting was used only for human the new product. Glouceste r seemed a likely food, but as time went on, industrial and location. Although it once reigned as the salt animal food markets were d e veloped . In 1937, fish capital, fish processing in Gloucester about 20 million pounds were landed, and by had dec 1 i n e d, mostly be c a use of foreign 19 57 this figure inc r eased to nearly 180 million competition beginning about 19 00, and hit pounds (Fritz, 1960) . In recent years, the food the economic bottom in 1933 (Whit e , fish landing s of whiting have averaged about 1954). 70 million pounds annually. Empty wharves and buildings wer e avail­ During the early years the fishery was able for the ocean perch proc e ssing plants largely a pound and trap Tlet operatlon, but and this space paved the way f o r a new in the 1930's the otter trawl became the " olden Era of Fishing" for the city of principal fishing gear, as it is today (fig. 17). Glouc es t er . The freshly caught fish are iced at s ea and The New England oc ean perch fishery has usually landed whole, but sometimes they are concentrated on a series of areas. The earlie st head ed and gutted at sea. The fish intended fishing in the Gulf of Maine took place i n the for human food go on conveyors to machines deep water along the edges of Cashe s L edg e, that automatically scale, wash, and, if neces­ the Great South Channel, and many of the s a ry, head the whiting . The dressed fish various holes in the area. then are trimmed (fig . 18) and packed by Later, the fleet moved eastward as n ew hand into retail- and institutional-size pack­ ocean perch stocks wer e discover ed on the a ges and frozen before distribution to market. Nova Scotia banks, Newfoundland banks, and in the Gulf of St. Lawrenc e . In each area, Flounders landings rose to a peak as fishing effort in­ creased for a few years. Late r, as catch­ The prosperous New England flounder flsh­ per-day began to decline in one area, the e r y als o owes much of its development to effort was diverted to new ar eas. technological advances . The catches were The trend in annual average catch-per-day very small until the advent of the otter trawl. of ocean perch has been slowly downward in Later, the introduction of filleting and freezing the four fishing areas mentioned above, each greatly increased the acceptability of the area approaching equilibrium at a diffe r ent product. Some flounders, including blackbacks level. The ocean perch landings from the and fluke, were sold in the round in the retail combine d areas reached a peak in 1951 and market . Other flounders, including dab and then declined as catch-per-day diminished gray s ole, wer e sold as fillets under the name and effort was reduced. Landings recently "sole. " Yellowtail flounder was abundant, but have stabilized at about 140 m illion pounds most dealers considered it too thin to be sold per year. in the r 0 u n d and not well enough known to

9 Figure 17.--Preparing to sort the catch on the deck of a Figure 18.--Dressing whiting in a Gloucester packing dragger that fishes for whiting. The catch here includes plant. The fish are destined for human food. a variety of species. Sea Scallops compe t e as fille ts with the other flounders (Royc e, Buller, and P r emetz, 19 59). Although the smaller bay scallop had been The situation changed rapidly, however , a well- known shellfish since Colonial times, when the abundance of blackback flound e r the giant, o r sea, scallop was more or les s a declined s ever e ly in the middle 1930's (Perl­ rar e curiosity until well into the 19th Century mutter, 1947) and the industry sought a sub­ (Smith, 1891). In 18 45, a specimen was stitute. The abundant yellowtail flounder described from a shell found in the stomach yielded a thin but fine-flavored fillet ; s oon of a codfish, and line fishermen occasionally it b egan to appe ar in the retail trade . The r etrieved giant scallops that had been hooked increased d e mand for fish products o f all by chance. Acommercialfishery, however, wa s kinds during World War II made the yellow­ not begun until about 188 3, along the coa s t of tail flound e r even mor e desirable. Maine. At first, the fishermen used oyste r The fishery for yellowtail flounder in recent dredges but later modified them for the rocky years was describe d by Lux (19 64) . The bottoms and d eep water of the scallop beds. catch ros e from slightly under 23 million The vessel anchored over the scallop bed pounds in 1938 to about 70 million pounds and a small boat carried the dredge a dis­ in 1942. It dropped to a low of 12 million tance away and dropped it to the bottom . Men pounds in 1954, but in r ecent years has stabil­ aboard the anchored ves s el then retrieved ized at about 30 million pounds per year. the dredge and its contents. Sometimes the About 70 percent of the catch is landed at New dredge was towed behind the small boat. Bedford, Mass. In the beginning of the industry, as now, The principal fishing grounds for yellowtail only the adductor muscle (eye, o r meat) of flounder are frOTT1 off east ern Long Island to the scallop was eaten. Some attempts were south of Nantucke t Island and on east-cent ral made unsuccessfully to can the meats for Georges Bank. Blackback flounders are caught the market. The salted m e ats wer e trie d as mostly on Nantucket Shoals and in Nantucket bait fo r cod on the line trawls but wer e no Sound; a few are taken on Georges Bank. Most bett er than the salted clams then used. The of the New England catch of fluke is taken fishe rmen wer e not interested in salting the during the winter and early spring when the " rims " (the visc e ra , mantle, and other un­ fish are concentrated on the offshor e g r ounds eaten b od y parts of the scallop) for bait and from Hudson Canyon t o Veatch Canyon. these wer e discard ed, as they are today .

10 The production of the New E n gland s ea toge ther, one from each side of the shlp, and scallop fishery was small in its b eginnings hauled back alte r nately and emptied on d ck. compared to the modern fishe r y. In 1889, for example, 29,851 gallons of scallop meats , Industr i al Fis he r y worth $18,647 to the fishe rm en, wer e landed in Maine (Smith, 1891). New England's industrial trawl fishery in Records for the early y e ars a r e incom ­ the broad sens e began in the late 1940's, plete, but it was not until 1931 that the annual largely as the r e sult of at least two different landings of sea scallop meats in New England fishery d e v elopments . The f i rst was the exceeded a million pounds. Total landings failur e of the California sardine fish ry on climbed gradually during the 1930's, reaching the U .S . W e st Coast; the sardine was a prime 10 million pounds (70 p e r cent l a nded in New source of meal and oil. The second was the England) in 1939. e xtension of the menhaden fishery into ew Landings declined duri n g the war but re­ England wate rs. The sizeable demand for bounded i mme diate ly afte r the war's end. As protein animal food supplements could be landings continued to incre as e in the late satisfied in part with the r elatively unused 1940's, New Bedford became the major port resource of non-food f ishes off the ew Eng­ for landings of s ea scallop m eats. In som e land coast. In addition, when the abundanc e years, over 80 p e rcent of total l a n d ings wer e of the yellowtail flounder declined, many at New Bedford. In the early 19 50's, land ings Sout h e rn New England fisherm en turned t o stabilized at about 18 m i llion pound s per year. fishing for industrial species for part of A dominant year class e nte r e d t he G eorges their income. Bank fishery i n 1959. The r e sulting abundance The fishery developed rather rapidly. In led to a dramatic incr eas e in la nd i n gs that 1948, New Bedford landings of industrial fish reached 36 million pounds in 1962 . were slightly more than 4 million pounds, The vessels and gear used in t he m od e rn bought ent i r ely by m ink farm operators (Snow, sea scallop fishery are a far c r y f rom the 19 50) . In 1949, however , New Bedford indus­ early small boats and modif ied oyste r d redges . trial landings wer e over 44 million pounds, Today, diesel-powe r ed v e ssels , 6 0 t o 100 f eet bought ent irely by r eduction plants for the long, use two heavy spe c ially made d r edges, preparation of fish meal. each 11 feet wide (fig. 19). They a r e towed The f i shery depended largely on only a f ew species (Edwa rds and Lux, 1958 ). R d hake, whiting, little skate, and big skate tog e the r accounted for all but a very small percentage of the industrial fish landed (flg. 20) (Edwards, 1958; Edwards and Lawday. 1960). Commercially important food fIsh were taken in ver y small quantitie'5 . F o r a time (1 954- 59). landings averaged over 100 million pounds a year. Whitmg made up about 25 percent of the total catch by

Figure 19.--A scallop dredge just coming outofthe water. ote the scallops in the iron- ring bag. This 'ew Bedford Figure 20.- - nloading Industrial fish at a • e En land vessel is fishing on Georges Bank, a productive area fish reduction plant. The species here are mostly whlti" for sea scallops. and red hake. 11 weight, and r ed hake m ade up about 50 p e r­ LITERATURE CITED cent from the Gulf of Maine grounds, but the proportion was 15 percent and 70 p e r cent, ACKERMAN, EDWARD A. r espectively, from Southe rn New England 1941. New England's fishing industry. Univ. grounds. The remainder of the catches in­ Chicago Press, Chicago, 303 p. cluded a variety of species, most of which ALEXANDER, A. B., H. F. MOORE, and had little or no commercial value as f ood W . C. KEN DALL. fish. 19 15. Otter-trawl fishery. U.S. Bur. Fish., The fishery declined rapidly with the d e ­ Rep. U.S. Comm. Fish., 19 14, append velopment of the Peruvian anchovy fishery 6, 97 p. and the local decline of the abundance of BABSON, JOHN J. menhaden. Another segment of the industr ial 1860. History of the town of Gloucester, fishery--for pet and mink food--continued t o Cape Ann, i ncluding the town of Rock­ develop at a slow but steady pace. Landings port. P roctor Bros., Gloucester, Mass., at present are about 25 million pounds per 610 p. year. BAIRD, SPENCER F. 18 7 3 . D e scription of apparatus used in cap­ turing fish on the sea-coast and lakes SUMMARY of the United States. U.S. Comm. Fish Fish., Report on the condition of The marine fishe ries of New England were the s ea fishe ries of the south coast of the first commer cial enterprise of what is New England in 18 71 and 18 72: 253-274. now the United State s. Years b efor e the War 18 74 . Conclusions as to d e crease of cod­ of Independ ence, the large export trade in fisheries on the New England coast. dried, salt fish had gained an important plac e U.S. Comm. Fish Fish., pt. 2, Rep. for the Colonies in world trade. Comm. 18 72 and 18 7 3: xi-xiv. From ths many fishing villages and shore­ BRIGHAM, ROBER T K. side towns of New England, hundreds of ves­ 1962 . Construction of a fish weir. Com. sels have fitted out over the years to harvest Fish. Rev. 24(6): 12-14. ~ with lines and nets the finfish and shellfish COLLINS, J . W . crop of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. The 1887. The gill- net cod fishery . In G eorge schooner s of Gloucester mad e extended trips Brown Good e , The fishe rie s and fishe ry to the offshore banks --Georg e s Bank, Browns industries of the Unite d State s, s ect. Bank, Banquereau- -and as far as the New­ 5, 1: 226-233. U.S. G overnment Print­ foundland banks in search of cod. After months ing Offic e , Washington, D.C. at s ea, the schooners sped home with all sails DODGE, WILLIAM [and others]. set and their holds packed with the split and 1880 . A p e tition to the Fish Commission of salted cod. the United States, signed by the fisher­ Great changes have taken place in the ves ­ men of Block Island, June 12, 1877. sels and the gear used to take the marine U.S. Comm. Fish Fish., pt. 6, Rep. harvest. Faster vessels w ith powerful engines Comm. 18 7 8 : 35-39 . and the us e of otter trawls instead of lines EARLL, R . E. wIth hooks now allow quicker trips to and 1880. A r e port on the history and present from the fishing banks and larger catches . condi t ion of the shore cod-fi sheries of The catch is no longer salted at s ea but is Cape Ann, Mass., tog ethe r with notes chilled on ice and delivered fresh to the on the natural history and artificial markets. Increased efficiency in catching and propagation of the species . U.S. Comm. handling the fish at sea and ashore r esulted Fish Fish., pt. 6, Rep. Comm. 1878: In expanded fishing effort and wider markets 685-740. for species previously discarded. Haddock, EDWARDS, ROBER T L. and FRED E. LUX. oc ean perch, flounders, and whiting are among 1958 . New England's industrial fishery. the fishes now preferred by the Amer ican Com. Fish. R ev. 20 (5): 1-6. consumer. EDW ARDS, ROBER T L. and LEWIS LAWDA Y. The New England fisherie s have had a 1960. S p e c i e s composition of industrial colorful history. Technological improvements, trawl-fish landings in New England, however, have put the modern fishing fleet on 1958 . U.S. Fish Wild!. S erv., Spe c. a more industrialized and efficient basis. Sci. Rep. Fish. 346, iii + 20 p. And thanks to these improvements, consumers FRITZ, RAYMOND L. now enjoy a greater variety and better quality 1960. A r e v iew of the Atlantic coast whiting of fish products than ever before. fishe ry. Com. Fish. Rev. 22(11): 1-11.

12 GRAHAM, MICHAEL (editor). ROYCE, WILLIAM F., RAYMONDJ. BULLER, 1956. Sea fishe ries, their investigation in and ERNEST D. PREMETZ. the United Kingdom. Edward Arnold, 1959. D ecline of the yellowtail flo unde r London, 487 p. (Limanda f erruginea ) off New England . HABERLAND, HOMER. U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., Fish. Bull. 59 : 1946. Glouceste r--three centurie s a fish­ 169-2 67. ing port. Fish Wildl. S e rv., Fish. L eafl. SABINE, LOREN ZOo 192, 5 p. 18 53. Report on the principal fisheri e s of HERRINGTON, WILLIAM C. the American seas. Prepared for the 1935. Modifications in g ear to curtail the Tr easury Department of the Uni t e d destruction of und e rsized fish in otter State s. Robert Armstrong, Printe r, trawling. [U.S.] Bur. Fish., Invest. Rep. Washington, 317 p . 24, 48 p . SE TTE, OSCAR E. 1936. Decline in haddock a bun dan c e on 1928. Statistics of the catch of cod off the George s Bank aftd a practical r emedy. east coast of North Ame rica to 192 6 . [U.S.] Bur. Fish., Fish. Circ. 23,22 p. [U.S.] Bur. Fish., Rep. U .S. Comm. JENSEN, ALBER T C. and HARRIETT E. Fish., 1927, append. 9: 737-748 . MURRAY. 1965. The U.S. cod fishery in the Northwest SMITH, HUGH M. Atlantic. Com. Fish. R ev. 2 7(7): 1-11. 1891. The giant scallop fishery of M a ine . JENSEN, ALBER T C. and ROBER T K. BRIG­ Bull. U.S. Fish Comm. 9: 313-335. HAM. 1894. Report on the Division of M e thods 1963. The line -trawl fishe ry for cod and and Statistics of the Fishe rie s. U .S . haddock at Chatham, Massachusetts. Comm. Fisf. Fish., pt. 18 , Rep. C o mm. Com. Fish. Rev. 25(6): 14-1 9. 18 92. c xxxiii-cxci. JOHNSON, F. F. SNOW, GEORGE W . 1932. Some unusual markets f o r fish and 1950. Development of trash fisher y at New shellfish. [U.S.] Bur. Fish., Fish. Bedford. Com . F ish. R ev. 12(7): 8 -10. Circ. 11, 31 p. STORER, DAVID H. LOTURE, ROBERT DE. 1867. A history of the fishe s of M assa ­ 1957. History of the great fishery of New­ chus e tts. W elch & Big elow a nd Dakin foundland. Translate d from the French l & Metcalf, Ca m b rid g e a n d B o ston, by Clyde C. Taylor.] U.S. Fish Wildl. 2 8 7 p. Serv., Spec. Sci. Rep. Fish. 2 13, 147 p. TOWNSEND, C . H . LUX, FRED E. 1901. Statistic s of the fish e rie s of t he New 1964. Landings, fishing effort, and apparent England states. U.S. C o mm. F ishFish ., abundance in the yellowtail flounder pt. 26, R ep. Comm. 1900: 3 11- 3 8 6 . fishery. Int. Comm. Northwest A tl. [ U.S.] BUREAU OF FISHERIES. Fish., Res. Bull. 1: 5-21: 1935. Fish and shellfish of New Engla nd. PER LEY, M. H. In Our aquatic food a nimal s. M e m o ­ 18 52. Reports on the s ea and river fish­ randum I-134a, 36 p. eries of New Brunswick, 2d ed. J. Simp­ WHEELER,CHARLESL. son, Queen's P r in t e r, Fredericton, 1955. The ocean fishe r y, M a ssachu s etts 294 p. oldest industry. Mass. D ept. Nat. R es., P ERLMUTTER,ALFRED. Div. Mar. Fish., Boston, 2 7 p. 1947. The blackback flounder and its fish­ ery in New England and New Yor k . WHITE, DONALD J. Bingham Oceanogr. CoIl., Bull. 11(2): 1954. The New England fishing industry . 92 p. Harvard Unive rsity Press, Cambridge , 205 p.

13 APPENDIX

Names of Species M ntioned in Text

Bay scallop Sea scallop lin) Spiny dogfish us Big skate Little skate Alewife Alosa seudoharen us (Wilson) Shad A . sapidissima Wilson) Menhaden Brevoortia tyrannus (Latrob ) Sea herring Cluaea harengus harengus Linna us Pacific sardine Sar inops caerulea (Girard) Atlantic cod -----Gadus morhua Linna us , Haddock Melanogrammus aegleIinus (Lmna us) Whiting (Silver hake) M e rluccius biEn aris (Mitchill) Pollock Pollach'iUSvir ens (Linna us) Red hake Uro h cis chuss (Walbaum) White hake U . tenuis (Mitchill) Boston macker el Scon:;t;er scombrus Linnaeus Ocean perch (Redfis h) Sebastes marinus (Linnaeus) Atlantic halibut Hippoglossus hlppoglossus (Linnaeus) Dab Hippoglossoides platessoides (Fabncius) Fluke Paralichthys dentatus (Linnaeus) Yellowtail flound er Limanda ferruginea (Storer) Blackback flounder Pseudopleuronectes americanus (Walbaum) Gray sole Glyptocepha1us cynog1ossus (Linnae s)

MS it1593

14

GPO 915.537