New England Groimdfish 



"... there uuis no sound except the splash of the sinkers overside, the fliipping of the cod. and the whack of 

 muckles as the men stunned theni. It was wonderfid fishing. " 



— Rudyard Kipling 

 "Captains Courageous" 



INTRODUCTION 



Some groundfish resources olf New England 

 are now recovering from record low stock sizes and 

 landings observed in the early 1990's. Other stocks, 

 however, continue to decline because of excessive 

 fishing mortality and below-average recruitment. 

 Declines in some stocks occurred steadily over 

 time, while others happened more recently and 

 abruptly. Resources more sensitive to overfishing 

 declined and were supplanted by other target spe- 

 cies in a sequential pattern of resource exploita- 

 tion. The New England groundfish fishery is now 

 supported by species most resilient to exploitation 

 and others not heretofore considered marketable. 

 Groundfish resources and their dependent fisher- 

 ies are well documented by landings statistics dat- 

 ing back over a century, and by standardized re- 

 search vessel survey ettorts which began over ^ 

 decades ago. This article reviews the history ot the 

 New England groundfish fishery, its management, 

 and prospects lor long-term recovery and 

 sustainability. 



BACKGROUND 



New England has been identified economically 

 and culturally with the harvest ot groundfishes, 

 for over 400 years. A mixture ot bottom-dwelling 

 species including Atlantic cod, haddock, redtish, 

 hakes, and flounders constitute the groundfish 



resource (Table 1). The complex history of the 

 region's groundfish resources and their exploita- 

 tion can be defined into several unique stanzas 

 since the turn ot the century. Some ot the impor- 

 tant technological developments and resource con- 

 ditions associated with these various stanzas are 

 described below. 



Conversion from Sail 

 to Steam (1900-20) 



In the late 19''' and early 20''' centuries, large 

 fleets ot sailing vessels trom Gloucester, Boston, 

 and other New England ports ranged throughout 

 the coastal areas and ottshore banks from Cape 

 Cod to the Grand Banks ott Newfoundland (Fig- 

 ure 1). Atlantic cod catches, primarily for salt cod, 

 supported over 800 dory schooners and a multi- 

 tude of shore-side businesses, including salt min- 

 ing, ice harvesting, and an active boat-building in- 

 dustry, necessitated by substantial losses of both 

 ships and men to the vagaries of the North Atlan- 

 tic. The catch from distant fishing grounds was 

 generally salted (schooners fishing with these 

 methods were termed "salt bankers"), while catches 

 from the Gulf ot Maine and Georges Bank, by 

 schooners called "market" or "shack" boats, were 

 generally stored on ice and sold fresh. 



At the turn of the 20"'' century, major techno- 

 logical innovations were introduced which 

 changed how fish were caught, handled, processed, 



Feature 

 Article 



2 



STEVEN A MURAWSKI 



RUSSELL W BROWN 



STEVEN X CADRIN 



RALPH K MAYO 



LORETTA OBRIEN 



WILLIAM J OVERHOLTZ 



KATHERINEA SOSEBEE 



NMFS Northeast Fisheries 



Science Center 



Woods Hole 



Massachusetts 



7 1 



