Cod fishery

“ The COMMON COD (Gadus morhua, Fig. 58) is distinguished by having three fins upon its back, a small fleshy beard on the under jaw, the tail fin nearly even at the extremity, and the first ray of the anal fin spinous.
The average weight of these fish is from ten to twenty, or thirty pounds.
To the inhabitants of many countries, but more especially to those of our own, the cod fishery is a very essential source of wealth. It affords occupation to many thousand persons, and employment for several hundred sail of shipping. ”

“ Sea birds frequent the Banks in great numbers; and, as diving birds are not met with at any great distance from them, the presence of these in the sea gives seamen an indication of the shallower water.
The total annual catch of cod in Newfoundland waters has been estimated at about 2,500,000 quintals (a quintal being one-twentieth of a ton) , with a value of about £1,400,000 sterling. The cod fishery forms four-fifths of the entire industry, in spite of the increase in the herring and lobster catch. ”

“ The whale-fishery has been fairly beaten out of the field by oil-spouting rocks. Why should we brave the perils of the Arctic circle when by sinking a tube in Pennsylvania we may strike a fellow of a thousand barrels, and wax rich while asleep? New London, Nantucket, New Bedford, and Edgartown have answered. The cod and mackerel fisheries have dwindled into like insignificance, say Marblehead, Gloucester, and all fishing ports along shore. ”

“ These also supply a valuable bait, and are followed by the herring, which continue till the middle or end of October, when the cod fishery closes. The cod are taken by the hook-and-line, the seine, the cod-net or gill-net, the cod-trap and the bultow. Newfoundland exports cod to Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Great Britain, Greece, the West Indies and the United States. Brazil and Spain are the largest consumers.
After the cod the seal fishery is of next importance. The industry was begun about 1740, when the value of the seal oil exports was £1000. ”

“ These nets are often as much as 800 feet long by 100 to 130 feet deep, and a really fortunate haul will bring in often many hundreds of pounds worth of fish; enough, in fact, to fill more than one small steamer. [Pg 203]
It is, of course, in the early spring, from January to April, that the great cod fishery is carried on, for it is then that the cod migrate to the coast. The fish are caught with hooks and lines, and it is the cod fishery which forms the chief trade of the Lofoten Islands. ”

“ The wholesale fishery is carried on by small fishing smacks or “bangers,” as the fishermen popularly term them, each of which is constructed with a large deep well, into which the fresh sea-water is allowed to enter by means of a grating. This is for a double purpose, viz., to keep the fish alive after taken as long as possible, and also to enable the cod-smack to remain at sea as long as may suffice to catch a good supply of fish before proceeding to that part of the coast where there may be a market for them. ”

“ All these banks are breeding places of the most valued of our food fishes—the cod, haddock, cusk, hake, pollock, and halibut—and each in its proper season furnishes fishing ground where are taken many other important species of migratory and pelagic food fishes as well as those named here. It is probable that no other fishing area equaling this in size or in productivity exists anywhere else in the world, and the figures of the total catch taken from it must show an enormous poundage and a most imposing sum representing the value of its fishery. ”

“ The cod fishery is especially important, dried fish being exported in large quantity, and the swim-bladders made into gelatine, and also used and exported for food. The whaling industry came into importance towards the close of the 19th century, and stations for the extraction of the oil and whalebone have been established at several points, under careful regulations designed to mitigate the pollution of water, the danger to live-stock from eating the blubber, &c. ”

“ Cod were extraordinarily numerous that year. One haul of the seine at the Baie Rouge brought in eighty-four thousand cod-fish in one day. It was the golden age of the fishery. Now the fish have deserted the eastern coast of Newfoundland. Our fishermen have to take their boats and anchor on the big bank, and there they stay for months, tossed about by every tempest. They go out line-fishing in small boats, which are frequently lost in the fog and never heard of again. ”

“ Belknap, in his Account of the American Newfoundland Fishery, which I transcribe for you perusal:—
"The cod-fishery is either carried on by boats or schooners. The boats in the winter season go out in the morning, and return at night. In the spring they do not return till they are filled. The schooners make three trips to the banks of Newfoundland in a season; the first, or spring cargo, are large, thick fish, which, after being properly salted and dried, are kept alternately above and under ground, till they become so mellow as to be denominated dumb fish. ”

“ Next to the stability of this great fishery we may note the commercial value of the cod. Different from oily fishes, like the salmon and herring, its flesh is rich and gelatinous, without being fatty, and readily lends itself to a simple and efficient cure27 by salting and drying in the sun. The cured product is found to be the best of all the deep-sea fishes for use in tropical countries, and has never had a rival. ”

“ The high-sea fisheries for cod, haddock, hake, halibut, mackerel, herring, and so forth are on the whole not increasing in prosperity, the annual value being between one and two million pounds. The lobster fishery shows a markedly diminishing yield, the diminution having been progressive since about 1890, and being attributed to over-fishing and violation of the restrictive regulations. ”

“ The trout and white fish, both very superior to the Newfoundland cod, are to be taken with the greatest ease, and in vast quantities. I have mentioned that the Americans have already commenced this fishery, and the demand is rapidly increasing. As the West fills up, the supply would hardly keep pace with the demand ”

“ Anon one comes to the islands of Apelvaer, and to such heaps of codfish as can only be got hold of by the mind by the aid of the figures, that tell us how one year's fishery alone produces sixteen millions of fish, twenty-one thousand five hundred barrels of cod-liver oil, and six thousand barrels of cods' roe! ”

“ This was the period of rapid increase in the number of steam-trawlers, of the exploitation of new fishing-grounds in distant waters, and of a great expansion of the herring-fishery.
There was thus no question of a general scarcity of fish. Fishing-boats were multiplying, and supplies increasing by leaps and bounds. Between 1891 and 1901 the average annual catch of plaice rose from 677,000 cwt. to 959,000 cwt., that of cod from 367,000 to 748,000 cwt., and that of herrings from 1,400,000 to 2,800,000 cwt. ”

“ In November of the year 1855, the writer fishing with the “long line” some little way off the North Foreland, and with a “fleet” containing only 280 hooks, caught fourteen fine cod-fish (the largest weighing thirty-four pounds and a-half) , besides skate, large whiting, conger eels, &c., using sprats for bait, whilst a “professional” cod smack-fishing, not a mile off, and whose hooks amounted to upwards of 3000, caught but three fish, and of these not one was over ten pounds in weight!—the bait used by the smack being whelks. ”

“ At our very doors, where with the hand-line during the summer and autumn months, some ten or twelve years ago, we could almost always depend on a large basketful of the finest rock cod, gurnard, haddock, and flounder, as the result of a couple of hours fishing, more recently very few, and sometimes none at all, could be caught, with the cunningest exercise of all the patience and piscatorial skill at our command, while in winter and spring the long-line fishing of grey cod, skate, and ling, and eel has been equally disappointing. ”

“ No one longer cared to fish inside, or, except in emergencies, to provision at Canadian towns. Convenient as would be the power to obtain bait near the fishing-grounds and to trans-ship fish home in bond, neither was indispensable. Cod are still caught with trawls and baited hooks. The best bait is squid, whose abundance upon the Banks is what causes the cod so to frequent them. The squid can be had freshest as well as cheapest from the peasantry of the Newfoundland and Nova Scotia coasts ”

“ They are presented simply in illustration of the immense possibilities of destruction when the fisheries are carried on at the spawning season. As a matter of fact, cod are just as abundant along our coasts as they ever were, and it has not yet been demonstrated that any kind of sea fish has ever been diminished in numbers by hook and line fishing or by netting them at a distance from the shore. ”

“ These lines are dropped into the sea on either side of the boat, and when the gunwale is almost touching the water and it is dangerous to put in any more fish, they give up work for the morning and return to the harbour. In general, fishing is a silent occupation, but cod fishers are rather a talkative race, and have bets with each other as to the amount of the ‘takes’ of the respective crews. ”

“ These flakes are formed by rough supports made of fir poles covered with branches of fir-trees. Each codfish is split, salted and laid open on these flakes. It takes six weeks of exposure to cure the fish, and there is a good deal of labour involved. Each morning the cod must be laid out on the flake. Each evening it must be gathered in, stacked and covered with bark, to which stones are attached to keep it down. This fish is then exported to Roman Catholic countries like Spain, Brazil, Portugal, Austria and Italy, where it forms the staple of food for the poorer population on fast days. ”

“ The skil, or black cod, formerly known as the "coal-fish," is a splendid deep-water product. These cod weigh from eight to twenty pounds, and used to be caught by the Indians with hook and line. Already white men are driving the Indians out by superior methods. Trawls of 300 hooks a [279] re used, and the fish are found to be plentiful, especially off the west coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands. The fish is described as superior to the cod of Newfoundland in both oil and meat. ”

“ Their appearance is not prepossessing, giving one the idea of being all head, fins, and bones, as they lie gasping on the shingle; an error of the eye only, as you discover when testing the substance and quality of a large one, smoking hot from the fish-kettle. Three species are commonly offered for sale in the markets, one of which is also taken in Japanese seas. They vary in size; I have often seen a rock cod thirty inches in length. Biting greedily at any bait, they are constantly caught by the Indians when trolling for salmon. ”

“ There is abundance of both wood and fresh water; in every part excellent fishing with the line may be had. Most of the catch will be new to English fishermen. Rock cod, blue cod, schnapper, the giant hapuka, a sort of cod, and the game kahawai, which will run like a salmon, are the best from a gastronomical and sporting point of view. Enough has been caught by a single line in a day to feed the whole crew of a man-of-war. ”

“ We depend so much on their time of coming that we leave home every year at the same date. They must know their way in the ocean and recognize different marks on their journey, for they have to travel thousands of miles before they return to the fishing banks to spawn. The cod in their migration leave behind them a great many stragglers, which are caught all the year round. The number of cod caught on the banks of Finmarken and of the Lofoden Islands averages about forty to forty-two millions a year, and the total catch along the coasts of Norway amounts to about fifty millions a year. ”

“ In winter the cod retire to the deeper waters, but they re-appear in March and April, when their pursuers hasten to the spot, not only from the bays and coves of Newfoundland, but from Great Britain, the United States, and France.
While fishing, each man has a space three feet and a half wide allotted to him on deck, so as not to interfere with his neighbor. The lines are from thirty to forty fathoms long—for the cod generally swims at that depth. The chief baits used are the squid, a species of cuttle-fish, and the capelin, a small salmon abounding on the North American coasts. ”

“ The fish already procured and salted is taken ashore at the new harbor by part of the crew, whom the captain has marked as the worst hands at fishing. There, on the bare rocks, or on elevated scaffolds of considerable extent, the salted Cod are laid side by side to dry in the sun. They are turned several times a day, and in the intervals the men bear a hand on board at clearing and stowing away the daily produce of the fishing-banks. ”

“ The more important species are the common cod, haddock, pollack, and hake. The countries principally engaged in the cod fisheries are Newfoundland, Canada, the United States, France, Great Britain, and Norway and Sweden, with a total annual product worth about $20,000,000. In the United States the number of vessels of not less than five tons burden which are engaged either wholly or largely in cod fisheries is not less than 600, with a total tonnage of 25,000 tons, representing a capital of over $3,000,000. Besides these there are many smaller vessels. The number of men engaged is over 7000. ”