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THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION
Scarcity of Cod and Haddock on the coast of Maine
By N.V.Tibbetts [Letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] February 27, 1886
I resided for fifteen years, from 1855 to 1870, near the coast of Maine. Most all farmers, like myself, were fishermen at times, and relied on catching our yearly supply of fish of various kinds, especially codfish and haddock; but these fish have long since deserted Penobscot Bay and Eggemoggin Reach, and few are loft but young herring, which are caught and converted into "sardines."
If the fish do not come back themselves, and it is evident from their long absence that they will not, the fishermen and farmers along our coast must look to you to coax them back or give us a new supply. If you will do so we will try to have a law passed, if there is not one already, that may protect them from being driven away by the fisher men, as the original supply was. In my opinion, the reason why the fish left our shores was because the fishermen took to using troll-lines.
Some say the steamboat was the cause, but I don't think that is so. Codfish know no more what is going on at the surface than we know about the bottom. I have caught haddock and cod where the steam- boat had been over the water every day for years, and in not over ten fathoms of water at that.
We used to row out on the Reach two or three hundred yards from shore, and in a few hours were as sure of catching a few hundred pounds of haddock and some cod as we were sure to -find potatoes by pulling up the tops and digging where we had planted the seed in the spring. But after two or three years of using the troll-lines, leaving the fish to die on the hook at the bottom, a man might as well stay at home and fish for haddock in the well he would catch just as many; but the trollers at that time, I remember, claimed that the steamboats drove the fish out of our Reach.
I have faith that you can help us out of our present trouble, and restore, in a measure, the supply of cod and haddock along our coast. Please inform me what steps are necessary to procure a number of young fish for Eggemoggin Reach, in Han**** County, Maine. Haddock were the fish that mostly frequented that place. Can young haddock be procured from your hatchery at Wood's Holl, Mass?
BROOKLIN, ME., February 27, 1886.
Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission 1883
Page 179
Catching Dogfish for Oil and Guano.
By B. Frank Gallup [Letter to Prof. S. F. Baird, Sept 26, 1882]
Allow me to call your attention to a new industry started this season on this coast upon scientific principles, and which promises to be a success, providing there is a bounty allowed to the fishermen. I refer to the catching of Dogfish and making them into oil and guano. I have paid this season $1 per 100 fish, and the fishermen claim that the price is too low, yet it is all that I can afford to pay for them - in fact all they are worth.
My views are that if the fishermen received a bounty in addition to the above price, that many more would engage in the business, and add their mite to ridding the ocean of these destructive fish.
I have this season converted the Pogie factory, formerly owned by Gallup & Holmes into using the fish, and can handle during their stay here say 1,000,000 fish, besides being instrumental in destroying twice that number in the young fish nearly matured.
East Boothbay, ME September 26, 1882
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION 1890
Page 73
NOTES ON THE DECREASE OF LOBSTERS.
By Richard Rathbun. [A paper read before the American Fishcultural Association in 1890.]
One of the most important of our sea-coast fisheries is that afforded by the American lobster, the Homarus americanus of naturalists. This interesting crustacean, the largest of its kind in North American waters, ranges from Labrador in the north to Delaware in the south, but is most abundant and most sought for along New England and the southernmost of the British coast provinces.
Its great abundance and rare flavor are not unfrequently mentioned in the early annals of New England, and it probably formed an important element in the food supply of the sea coast inhabitants of colonial times.
As a separate and distinct industry, however, the lobster-fishery does not date back much, if any, beyond the beginning of the present century, and it appears to have been first developed on the Massachusetts coast, in the region of Cape Cod and Boston, although some fishing was done, as early as 1810 among the Elizabeth Islands and on the coast of Connecticut. Strangely enough, this industry was not extended to the coast of Maine, where it subsequently attained its greatest proportions, until about 1840. Concerning the history of this unique fishery but few authentic records of any kind exist, nor was any attempt ever made to estimate its extent and value prior to the census investigations of 1880.
We are, therefore, left without much reliable data for comparing its past and present conditions, and for solving the many problems which now, in the minds of many, seem to threaten its continued prosperity.
The great question at issue, and one which demands the earnest attention of every lobster fisherman and dealer, is whether lobsters are decreasing in abundance and will eventually become rare and difficult to obtain, or whether they are still as plentiful as ever and show no indications of approaching extinction. While we hope for the latter, we are forced to acknowledge that a careful study of all the materials at our command inclines us to the belief that the abundance of lobsters has very perceptibly diminished within comparatively recent times, and that, unless some active measures are instituted to prevent continued decrease in the future, a great and irreparable injury to the fishery will ensue.
Although, as we have just said, the lobster-fishery is without a carefully recorded history, we have been enabled, through the assistance of many intelligent fishermen and dealers, some of whom have shown themselves to be very capable observers, to trace back the conditions of the fishery through a number of years. The results so obtained have been embodied in a report prepared for publication by the United States Fish Commission. It has been suggested that a short statement of some of the facts bearing upon the supposed decrease might be of interest to the
READ MORE-CLICK THIS LINK
The Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission.
Selected reports 1881-1901.
Scarcity of Cod and Haddock on the coast of Maine
By N.V.Tibbetts [Letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] February 27, 1886
I resided for fifteen years, from 1855 to 1870, near the coast of Maine. Most all farmers, like myself, were fishermen at times, and relied on catching our yearly supply of fish of various kinds, especially codfish and haddock; but these fish have long since deserted Penobscot Bay and Eggemoggin Reach, and few are loft but young herring, which are caught and converted into "sardines."
If the fish do not come back themselves, and it is evident from their long absence that they will not, the fishermen and farmers along our coast must look to you to coax them back or give us a new supply. If you will do so we will try to have a law passed, if there is not one already, that may protect them from being driven away by the fisher men, as the original supply was. In my opinion, the reason why the fish left our shores was because the fishermen took to using troll-lines.
Some say the steamboat was the cause, but I don't think that is so. Codfish know no more what is going on at the surface than we know about the bottom. I have caught haddock and cod where the steam- boat had been over the water every day for years, and in not over ten fathoms of water at that.
We used to row out on the Reach two or three hundred yards from shore, and in a few hours were as sure of catching a few hundred pounds of haddock and some cod as we were sure to -find potatoes by pulling up the tops and digging where we had planted the seed in the spring. But after two or three years of using the troll-lines, leaving the fish to die on the hook at the bottom, a man might as well stay at home and fish for haddock in the well he would catch just as many; but the trollers at that time, I remember, claimed that the steamboats drove the fish out of our Reach.
I have faith that you can help us out of our present trouble, and restore, in a measure, the supply of cod and haddock along our coast. Please inform me what steps are necessary to procure a number of young fish for Eggemoggin Reach, in Han**** County, Maine. Haddock were the fish that mostly frequented that place. Can young haddock be procured from your hatchery at Wood's Holl, Mass?
BROOKLIN, ME., February 27, 1886.
Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission 1883
Page 179
Catching Dogfish for Oil and Guano.
By B. Frank Gallup [Letter to Prof. S. F. Baird, Sept 26, 1882]
Allow me to call your attention to a new industry started this season on this coast upon scientific principles, and which promises to be a success, providing there is a bounty allowed to the fishermen. I refer to the catching of Dogfish and making them into oil and guano. I have paid this season $1 per 100 fish, and the fishermen claim that the price is too low, yet it is all that I can afford to pay for them - in fact all they are worth.
My views are that if the fishermen received a bounty in addition to the above price, that many more would engage in the business, and add their mite to ridding the ocean of these destructive fish.
I have this season converted the Pogie factory, formerly owned by Gallup & Holmes into using the fish, and can handle during their stay here say 1,000,000 fish, besides being instrumental in destroying twice that number in the young fish nearly matured.
East Boothbay, ME September 26, 1882
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION 1890
Page 73
NOTES ON THE DECREASE OF LOBSTERS.
By Richard Rathbun. [A paper read before the American Fishcultural Association in 1890.]
One of the most important of our sea-coast fisheries is that afforded by the American lobster, the Homarus americanus of naturalists. This interesting crustacean, the largest of its kind in North American waters, ranges from Labrador in the north to Delaware in the south, but is most abundant and most sought for along New England and the southernmost of the British coast provinces.
Its great abundance and rare flavor are not unfrequently mentioned in the early annals of New England, and it probably formed an important element in the food supply of the sea coast inhabitants of colonial times.
As a separate and distinct industry, however, the lobster-fishery does not date back much, if any, beyond the beginning of the present century, and it appears to have been first developed on the Massachusetts coast, in the region of Cape Cod and Boston, although some fishing was done, as early as 1810 among the Elizabeth Islands and on the coast of Connecticut. Strangely enough, this industry was not extended to the coast of Maine, where it subsequently attained its greatest proportions, until about 1840. Concerning the history of this unique fishery but few authentic records of any kind exist, nor was any attempt ever made to estimate its extent and value prior to the census investigations of 1880.
We are, therefore, left without much reliable data for comparing its past and present conditions, and for solving the many problems which now, in the minds of many, seem to threaten its continued prosperity.
The great question at issue, and one which demands the earnest attention of every lobster fisherman and dealer, is whether lobsters are decreasing in abundance and will eventually become rare and difficult to obtain, or whether they are still as plentiful as ever and show no indications of approaching extinction. While we hope for the latter, we are forced to acknowledge that a careful study of all the materials at our command inclines us to the belief that the abundance of lobsters has very perceptibly diminished within comparatively recent times, and that, unless some active measures are instituted to prevent continued decrease in the future, a great and irreparable injury to the fishery will ensue.
Although, as we have just said, the lobster-fishery is without a carefully recorded history, we have been enabled, through the assistance of many intelligent fishermen and dealers, some of whom have shown themselves to be very capable observers, to trace back the conditions of the fishery through a number of years. The results so obtained have been embodied in a report prepared for publication by the United States Fish Commission. It has been suggested that a short statement of some of the facts bearing upon the supposed decrease might be of interest to the
READ MORE-CLICK THIS LINK
The Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission.
Selected reports 1881-1901.
