1998 

 OUR LIVING OCEANS 



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Figure 2 



Otter trawl vessels at Boston 

 Fish Pier, ca. 1931. At the end 

 of the pier is the Spray, built 

 in 1905, the first steam 

 trawler in the New England 

 groundfish fleet. 



distributed, and sold. Ihc introduction oi better 

 li.indling (filleting and freezing) and di.stribiition 

 methods (train, refrigerated storage) meant that 

 fresh and frozen fish could be sold in markets across 

 the country, thereby reducing the dominance of 

 salt cod as a preferred product. 



Steam-powered trawl vessels, introduced to 

 harvest flounders and haddock on smooth-bottom 

 areas, rapidly replaced the traditional sailing schoo- 

 ners. The first trawler. Spray, was introduced in 

 Boston in 1906 (Figure 2), and the trawler fleet 

 quickly grew to over 300 vessels by 1930. Steam 

 power was supplanted b\ diesel power alter World 

 War I. The transition to otter trawling as the domi- 

 nant fishing method was, however, not without 

 controversy. Objections to development ot the 

 otter trawl fishery centered on the potent iai lor 

 ecological damage to bottom-dwelling animals and 

 plants, and economic competition with existing 

 fixed-gear fisheries. Management recommenda- 

 tions resulting from scientific investigations ot the 

 "trawler problem" included delimiting areas where 

 trawls could and could not be used; however, these 

 recommendations were not implemented. Kven 

 before 1900, some species, especially the Atlantic 

 halibut (Figure 3), showed signs of decline due to 

 overfishing by hook-and-line fisheries, flalibut 

 landings had begun to decline bv the 1 cSSO's, and 

 by the 1890's almost all of the Atlantic halibut 

 sold in Gloucester came from Iceland. Pacific hali- 

 but were shipped to Boston via train bv the turn 

 of the century. Overfishing and resource decline 

 would accelerate with the increased intensity of 

 the fisheries and the expanding list of target spe- 

 cies. 



Figure 3 



Unloading Atlantic halibut, 

 ca. 1930, at the Boston Fish 

 Pier. Note traditional dories 

 nested together aboard the 

 vessel in the foreground. 



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