Fishing Grounds of the Gulf of MaineRich, Walter H. (Walter Herbert)
History
Fishing Grounds of the Gulf of Maine
Rich, Walter H. (Walter Herbert)
Fisheries -- Maine, Gulf of
Cusk are plentiful here in the spring, with a few in the fall. Cod are
taken all the year around, the Spring school being the largest. Hake are
most numerous In the spring and fall months, and haddock are not common
but are most numerous in winter.
Apparently the abundance of cod on this ground is due to the great
quantity of shrimps and soft-shelled crabs found on the muddy bottom and
on the rocks that compose this ground. There seem to be many of these
deep-water grounds between and about the shoaler grounds, as near
Cashes, Fippenies, and Jeffreys, which apparently serve as fairways over
which the schools of hake, cod, and cusk, move from Georges Bank into
the Gulf of Maine in the spring of the year.
Harvey Blacks Ridge. This is SE. 1/2 S. from the lightship off
Portland, distant 42 miles, and SE. from New Ledge, distant 8 miles.
From Glovers Rock, off Small Point, Me. this ridge lies SE. by S. 1/2 S.
41 miles. It extends in an ENE. and WSW. direction about 4 miles long by
I mile wide. Depths average 70 to 100 fathoms over a bottom of yellow
clay and gravel. Cod are taken here all the year. Haddock are found in
the deep water in the spring: cusk all the year in deep water, together
with hake in summer, also on the muddy bottom in deep water. Pollock and
other surface-schooling fish are found here in their proper season.
The Cod Ridge (formerly Outer Harris Ground). This lies NE. from the
Northeast Peak of New Ledge, distant 7 miles. It extends in an ENE. and
WSW. direction, the ground narrowing and the water deepening to the
eastward, the shoal ground having 45 fathoms on a bottom of small
pebbles and fine black gravel and sand, depths increasing in all other
directions to 100 fathoms on the mud and sloping off somewhat steeply,
especially on the southeast side, where the drop is very sharp. The
length of the ground is about 5 miles, the width 1 mile. This is an
all-the-year cod ground, the season of greatest abundance being from May
1 to November. The haddock are usually In their greatest numbers here
from January 1 to April. Apparently no large number of cusk or hake are
taken here on the ridge, perhaps because the water is not deep enough
for the former, except for the small fish, which are of little value to
the fishermen; and the ground is not muddy enough for the latter
species. Both species, however, are found about the edges in the deep
water, the cusk on the sharpest, hardest part of the bottom (perhaps
most common in February and March), the hake, as usual, on the muddy
parts about it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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