4 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



the Newfoundland government; in recent years, the work 

 and writings of Dr. Grenfell have added greatly to our 

 knowledge of the Labrador coast. A succession of deep, 

 narrow fiords along the coast has for an outer fringe a 

 vast multitude of islands about twenty-five miles in stretch 

 from the mouths of the fiords seaward. About fifteen 

 miles outside these fringing islands are numerous banks 

 and shoals, the feeding ground of cod from the middle of 

 June to October, while outside the shoals there appears 

 to be a second range of banks, where, probably, the cod 

 feed in winter. This island-studded area forms an im- 

 mense codfishing ground, which has been estimated at 5,200 

 square miles in area. 



The mean length of the fishing season for cod over four 

 degrees of latitude on the northeastern coast of Newfound- 

 land has been estimated to be 142 days, for southern 

 Labrador over three degrees of latitude it is 87 days, and 

 for northern Labrador over three and one-half degrees 

 of latitude it is 52 days. The cod does not travel far in its 

 annual migration on this coast. After the spawning season 

 the fish retires to deeper water offshore. Each year the cod 

 returns to its birthplace with the school, and haunts the 

 same neighborhood the short season of its inshore life. 

 The school of cod arrives on the coast about a week later 

 for every degree of latitude farther north. For a period 

 of about forty days the codfishing goes on simultaneously 

 during August and September throughout the length of a 

 coast line, extending from latitude 47 to latitude 58 30', 

 or more than 700 miles. 1 



No fishing banks are found off the east coast of New- 

 foundland, but the coast furnishes a vast area for boat- 

 fishing for cod. Squid, capelin and herring abound and 

 are taken mainly for use as bait to be sold to French and 



i Grenfell, Labrador, pp. 297-327 ; Goode, The Fishery Industries 

 of the United States, Sec. Ill, pp. 12-13. 



