90 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



2. THE SALT-HALIBUT FISHERY, WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE 



TO THAT OF DAVIS' STRAITS. 



BY NEWTON P. SOTJDDER. 

 1. GENERAL DISCUSSION OF THE FISHERY. 



The demaud for smoked halibut maintains a fishery of increasing importance, in which the 

 vessels are employed exclusively in catching and salting these fish. The demand is at present 

 greater than the supply, and it seems probable that in the future this fishery will grow much faster 

 than it has in the past. 



In order to understand this prospect of increase it is necessary to inquire from what fisheries 

 the " smoke houses" obtain their salt halibut for smoking. These are the salt-cod, the fresh-halibut, 

 and the salt-halibut fisheries. 



Halibut caught by the salt cod fishermen are commonly salted and sold to the smoke-houses. 

 In the fresh-halibut business, however, when the quantity taken is greater than the fishermen have 

 ice for preserving and there is danger of the fish spoiling before reaching a market, sometimes part 

 of the fish are salted for smoking, and when the market is overstocked with fresh halibut the sur- 

 plus is often sold to the smokers and salted. Were either of these two fisheries, or both combined, 

 able to meet the demand for smoked halibut, there would be no inducement to send out vessels on 

 purpose to catch and salt these fish. It is, however, a fact that though halibut were formerly very 

 abundant near the coast of New England and on the bunks frequented by the cod-fishing vessels, 

 they have been gradually disappearing from these places, until at the present day the fresh-halibut 

 fleet finds greater and greater difficulty in supplying the market with fresh fish, and the cod fish- 

 ermen cure less and less every year. 



The scarcity of halibut near the coast would at first seem unfavorable to the development of 

 a salt-halibut fishery, but in reality the contrary is true. The fresh-halibut fishery must ever be 

 limited by distance, for only those fish caught comparatively near home cart be sold in the market 

 as fresh fish. All others must be salted. But this scarcity, by decreasing the amount of salted 

 halibut furnished by the cod and fresh halibut fisheries, and thus making the demand greater than 

 the supply, encourages vessels to engage in the salt-halibut fishery and to utilize distant fishing 

 banks where the halibut are. more abundant. These banks must be more numerous than is at 

 present realized, for the halibut is a widespread species, and may be circumpolar in distribution. 

 It occurs off the Orkneys and to the north of Norway, has been caught in the Arctic north of 

 Siberia, is abundant off the coast of Alaska and British Columbia, supports an important fishery 

 in Davis' Strait, and is a nuisance to the cod-fishermen about Iceland. 



In the autumn of 1881 over 432,000 pounds of salt halibut were brought from Greenland, the 

 principal source of supply, but by the following spring the supply had been exhausted, and smoked 

 halibut was out of the market. 



We see, then, that the demand for smoked halibut is sometimes in excess of the supply; >liat 

 the salt-cod and fresh halibut fisheries furnish less and less every year; and that the halibut, 

 though decreasing near the coast of New England, are very plentiful in northern waters. Whjeu we 

 consider that the fishermen, competent in all that pertains to their profession, are especially eager 



