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
[Footnote 6: William Strachey (1609), speaking particularly of Casco Bay,
but the words equally applicable to almost any stretch of the Maine
coast, says "A very great bay in which there lyeth soe many islands and
soe thick and neere together, that can hardly be discerned the number,
yet may any ship pause betwixt, the greatest part of them having seldom
lesse water than eight or ten fathoms about them"--History of Travalle
into Virginia Britannica.]
[Footnote 7: This, the most striking cape of the Atlantic coast line,
made a very prominent landmark for all the early ocean voyagers
approaching it, and all were greatly impressed by it, whether they came
from the south and fought their way through its shoals to eastward, or,
coming from the north, found themselves caught in the deep pocket which
it makes with Cape Cod Bay.
The Spaniard Gomez (1525) gave it the name "Cabo de do Aricifes" cape
of the reefs, referring to the dangerous shoals to the eastward. The
Frenchmen Champlain and Du Monts named it "Cape Blanc", and the Dutch
pilots, also noting its sandy cliffs, called it Witte Hoeck. The English
mariners at first accepted his last name of White Cape, but the English
Captain Anthony Gosnold, the first to make a direct passage to the
waters of the Gulf of Maine from Europe, although at first he called it
"Shoal Hope", soon changed this, because of the success of his fishing,
to "Cape Cod", which title, commonplace though it be, has been the name
to endure despite Prince Charles's attempt to change it to Cape James in
honor of his father.]
[Footnote 8: Cape Sable, at the southern end of Nova Scotia, has held
this title from very old times. It is so indicated on a Portuguese map
of the middle of the sixteenth century.]
BAY OF FUNDY
At the different seasons of the year the entire Bay of Fundy [9] is a
fishing ground for sardines and large herring; and while these are of
somewhat less importance in recent years than formerly, the principal
fisheries of this region still center around the herring industries--the
supplying of the canning factories with the small herring used as
sardines and the taking of large herring for food and bait. The sardine
industry of the State of Maine is largely concentrated in the district
about and including Eastport and Lubec, where about 30 of the 59
factories and 16 of the 43 operating firms are located; so that, while
the herring catches of recent years have fallen much short of their
former proportions, they still show imposing figures.
In the past much of the catch was taken in St. Andrews (Passamaquoddy)
Bay and along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy to Lepreau Bay and
Point. Lepreau. Of late years virtually no herring have been taken in
these waters, in which the herring schools that arrive in October were
accustomed to remain until spring. Of past fishing in this locality
Capt. Sumner Stuart, of Lubec, says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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