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
"The herring left St. Andrews Bay and the North Shore about 1885. There
is no summer netting there now. Those waters and Lepreau Bay were
formerly very productive fishing grounds, it being not unusual to take
5,000 (count) big herrings (food fish) in a single haul. These were
mainly spring and winter fishing grounds for large herring. The fish
seem to have disappeared from all these grounds at about the same
time.[10]
"In past years (25 to 30 years ago) small herring were driven ashore in
such quantities by their enemies--squid, silver hake and dogfish--that
it sometimes became necessary for the authorities at St. John to use a
snowplow to cover them where they lay decaying on the beach."
From the statistics of the sardine and smoked-herring industry for the
year 1924 (a year, be it noted, in which the sardine industry almost
reached low--level mark for the pack) the waters of the Bay of Fundy
furnished to American purchasers alone a total of herring for smoking
and canning purposes amounting to 76,756,250 pounds valued to the
fishermen at $957,665. This showing, poor as it is when compared with
the figures of other years, by no means represents the herring fishery
as an unimportant industry. There still remains to be accounted for the
catch of herring of Grand Manan and the neighboring Canadian Provinces.
A new source of profit to the fishermen in this industry has been
developed in the purchase of herring scales by firms engaged in the
manufacture of artificial pearls. For this purpose there were collected
at Eastport and Lubec 700,000 pounds of herring scales, valued at
$39,000; and a further amount was taken at Grand Manan of 140,000
pounds, valued at $7,000. With other entrants already in the field, this
branch of the industry bids fair to grow to still greater importance.
An estimate of the number of weirs in St. Andrews Bay, by Capt. Guilford
Mitchell of Eastport, Me., is as follows: Canadian: 1921: 126 weirs
1923: 40 weirs Calais to Eastport: 1921: 35 weirs; 1923: 7 weirs Total
number in operation, 1923, Canadian, about 300; American less than 130.
North Shore and coast of Nova Scotia. Along the North Shore
and from Yarmouth to Cape Sable, over a hard bottom, cod abound. The
western shore of Nova Scotia is virtually all fishing ground for cod,
haddock, hake, and cusk, but trawling is somewhat handicapped here by
strong tides and rocky bottom, these combining to destroy much gear.
Halibut are somewhat unusual on this western shore except about the
mouth of the Bay of Fundy, but in summer these fish are occasionally
found close inshore along the southwest coast, going somewhat beyond
Digby to the northward. Haddocking is quite an important industry off
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, during the winter, the sets being of rather
short duration and made at the slack of the tide at high water. This
practice is made necessary by the heavy tidal currents on these grounds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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