Fishing Was the New World's Earliest Industry, and What Is Present-Day

CHAPTER I Historical Overview of the Northern New Fngland Fxshzng Industry Fishing was the NewWorld's earliest industry, and what is present-day northern NewEngland was an early leader in that industry, To be sure, fishing the Grand Banks near Newfoundlandhad become a well-established industry as early as the 15th century and possibly earlier. However, the New England fisheries quickly expandedin prominence, until by the latter part of the 17th century, fishing dwarfed all other industries in importance. In the early 17th century, only inshore stocks of fish were exploited by Maine and NewHampshire settlers, who used relatively smalI 'shallops," usually with a four mancrew. The primary commercial species was cod, which was salted and ex- ported to France, Spain, the Caribbean and elsewhere as early as 1650 McFarland 1911;69!. In the latter part of the 17th century, NewEnglanders began building much larger vessels which stayed out for much longer periods and began to exploit the Grand Bankswaters off Newfoundlandand Lab- rador. During the 18th century, iMassachusettstook a commandinglead in NewEngland's fishing industry; its population was by then denser and its boats larger and more numerous than that of Maine and New Hampshire. For example, in 1765-1775 of 665 New England codfishing vesseIs, only 60 were from Maine McFarland 1911:112!. The periOd betWeen the American ReVOlutiOn and the War Of 1812 waS a bad One fOr New England' S fishing industry. A great deal of capital equipment had deteriorated or been destroyed, and mar- keting suffered because of a British law prohibiting importation of U. S. fish. To try to alle- viate the poor conditions of the industry the U. S. Congress in 1792 passed a bounty law whereby shipowners received graduated payments, depending on the tonnage of the vessel. The Maine fishing industry grew relatively rapidly in response to this bounty system, and manyformer fishing ham- lets became full-fledged towns McFarland 1911:136; 143-146!. During the 19th century, the period between the close of the War of 1812 and the Civil War were perhaps the most prosperous years for New England's fisheries Acheson et al. 1978:20!. There was a big expansion in fleet size, catch size, and numbers of different species exploited. The Federal "bounty" continued and was raised in 1818, remaining in effect until 1866 McFarland 1911: 162-164!. Fish harvesting and processing technologies grew rapidly, And the market value of fish was very good. Cod continued to be the mainstay of the New England fishery, but after 1818 the mackeral, herring, and menhaden fisheries expanded rapidly. Fish were caught from sail-powered boats by men using handlines from the boat itself, or in traditional fixed gear operations, in the case of herring first brush weirs, and later stop seines!. Considering the technology used, catches were extremely high McFarland 1911:171!. Maine and New Hampshire lagged behind Massachusetts in the use of large boats capable of exploit- ing the Grand Banks and other distant areas. Only during the 1830's did much larger 0 to 20 ton! vessels begin to be constructed in iMaine, while 40 to 80 ton square stern schooners became the standard long-distance boats in the 1850's Acheson et al. 1978;22!. Perhaps the most important changes in the decades preceeding the Civil War were those which led to the eventual diversifica- tion and expansion of New England's fishing industry ibid!. Major technical changes in harvesting included: the use of line trawls generally baited with clams or small herring!, which began around 1850 Green 1906:367!; the catching of cod from dories rather than from the main vesseI a technique so efficient it was used by the Portuguese until the 1960's!; and the use of purse seines used first for mackeral and menhaden in the mid 1860's, and much later for herring! Acheson et al. 1978:24! . Processing also underwent important changes. While salting continued on a large scale, fishing products began to be marketed in a variety of ways. Smoking and pickling of herring had begun in the eastern part of Maine especially Eastport and Lubec! as early as the 1820's and 1830's. The canning of lobster began in Eastport in 1843 McFarland 1911:178!. According to Goode 887, Vol. III:17!, "the first can of hermetically sealed goods" put up in the United States was pro- duced in Eastport, the process having been introduced from France via Halifax, Nova Scotia. A technique for extracting oil from menhadenwas developedin 1850, andby the time of the Civil War the first steam menhaden oil factory in Maine was built Green 1906:371!, The Civil War and years immediately following marked a peak in the NewEngland fishing industry. The war brought favorable prices, and catcheswere up. However,from the decadesafter the Civil War until World War I, fisheries underwent a decline, even though important innovations continued to be made. Part of the reason for this decline was a decrease in landings of several major stocks, especially menhaden,mackeral, and cod. Menhaden,especially, underwentmassive fluctuations in local availability. After being found in abundancein NewEngland waters in 1864, 1865, and 1866, they all but vanishedby the early 1870's. The groundfishery especially cod, haddock, hake, and pollack! continued to have fairly high catch levels, but hy 1885a real decline set in AcheSonet al. 1978:26!. Mackeral showedan even more precipitous drop. From 1S85to 1886, the catchdropped 75', andcontinued to decline thoughat a slowerrate! in subsequentyears McFar- land 1911:264!. The lobster industry becamewell-established during this period, stimulated at first by the rapidly expandingcanning business. The canneries took any size lobsters, and there beganto be "a no- ticeable scarcity of lobsters" McFarland 1911:232!. To try to rectify this situation, Maine passeda law in 1879which prohibited lobster canningfrom August1st to May1st, following; in 1S83it was madeillegal to can lobsters under nine inches long; and in 1885, 1889, 1891, and 1895 there were further Iaws regulating lobster canning seasons and minimumsizes. These various re- gulations led to a decline in the lobster canning industry by the 1880's and in IS95 the last remaining factory closed ibid!. The fresh lobster market, on the other hand, continued strong. "Lobster smacks" were used as early as the 1840's but after the Civil War there was a great in- crease in numbers. These vessels had regular routes betweenpoints along the Maine and NewHamp- shire coast and the Boston, NewYork, and Philadelphia markets Achesonet al. 1978:28!. The canningof herring as "sardines"! becamean important industry in Mainein the 1SSO's,especially in WashingtonCounty. Theherring catch, then as now, showedconsiderable fluctuations, thoughthe marketwas strong and innovations in canningand processing continuedto be made. Clam had been used extensively for bait, and canning opened up a new market. The harvest of soft-shelled clams from NewEngland continued to rise in both volume and value during the late 1800's, However, by 1905 the volume was way down, though prices remained strong McFarland 1911:246!. Innovations continued in the harvesting and transporting of fish. The use of dories and line trawls had become universal by the 1870's. Crushed ice was used on board vessels to preserve fish. Steamersbegan to be used for morerapid fish transport, apparently used first in the menhaden industry in the 1860's. By 1900, somelarger fishing vessels began to carry auxilliary gas engines, thoughsail continued to be important up through World WarI and even later. Perhaps the most important innovation in harvesting wasthe otter trawl. Howeve~,though this was intro- ducedas early as 1905, it did not really becomewidely distributed until 1920 Ackerman1941:79! From the time of World War I until the present, the pace of change in the NewEngland fisheries has accelerated. The decline in stocks of certain popular species has also accelerated. This decline has been counterbalanced to some degree by innovations which allowed the profitable ex- ploitation and marketingof other species. Otter trawls, introduced in NewEngland in 1905, be- camewidely usedby 1920, and madepossible an increased catch of various flatfish species, haddock, and redfish. By 1935, 80%of all NewEngland groundfish were caughtby otter trawls Ack- erman1941:78-79!. The invention of the filleting machineand refinement in quick-freezing tech- niques in the early 1930's were further developmentswhich increasedthe attractiveness of ex- ploiting species such as redfi sh, flatfish, and haddock. Theuse of gas and diesel engines in boats increasedgreatly in the Ieriod betweenthe World Wars, alongwith the useof steel boat construction. However,the fin-fishing fleet of NewEngland as a whole,and especially of the northernregions, wasvery heterogeneousat this time; dories and hand lines continued to be usedalongside new$300,000 steel-hulled trawlers Ackerman1941:71, Achesonet al. 1978:34!. In the 1920's and 1930's, somelobstering was still donefrom rowing skiffs, but virtually all larger lobster boats werepowered by convertedauto engines; manywere equippedwith trap-pulling winches,often madefrom the rear endof an automobile Acheson et al. 1978: 34! . The 1940's and 1950's was a period of improved catches in many of New England's fisheries. There were also continuing changes in boats and gear. Although the catch of somegroundfish species continued to decline, catches of mackeral, redfish, whiting silver hake! and flatfish all increased. Shrimp, which appear in northern NewEngland waters from time to time perhaps on a cyclical basis! were caught in large numbersin the mid 1940's. They were again caught in large quantities in the late 1960's and early 1970's, only to decline again in the late 1970's. I.ob- ster catches, which had declined drastically during the 1930's, improved markedly; for example, in 1942the reported catch in Mainewas only 8.5 million pounds,but in 1950it wasup to 19 million Hebert 1951!.

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