Stellwagen Bank Final EIS and Management Plan 



Page 36 



were hunted in the open ocean. However, 

 exploitation of these resources appears to be 

 restricted to nearshore or onshore activities, such as 

 utilizing beached whales or hunting seals along the 

 shore, rather than on the open ocean (Salwen, 1978; 

 Snow, 1978). Therefore, there is Uttle hkelihood for 

 the occurrence of prehistoric cultural materials m 

 the Sanctuary area from roughly after 6000 B.P. 



b. Historic Vessel Traffic 



The Sanctuary area can be described as the 

 "gateway" to maritime commerce of Massachusetts. 

 Historically, as today, the main shippmg lanes 

 crossed over Stellwagen Bank. Until the opening of 

 the Cape Cod Canal, this was the only access to the 

 ports inside Massachusetts Bay, such as Boston, 

 Plymouth, Salem, Gloucester, and Provincetown. 

 With the opening of the Canal, vessel traffic not 

 destined for Massachusetts Bay ports crossed the 

 study area with much greater frequency. Further, 

 fishing vessels utilized the study area not only as a 

 fishing ground but also as the route to major fishing 

 grounds on Georges Bank and the Great South 

 Chaimel. 



Historical fisheries and whaling activities of this 

 region are well established. It is clear that near 

 shore fisheries (including whaling from long boats) 

 encompassed Stellwagen Bank (Stuart Frank, pers. 

 comm., 1990). It was the shift from smaller vessels 

 to the schooners which moved the majority of 

 fisheries further offshore to areas such as Georges 

 Bank, Great South Channel, and Grand Bank. 

 Nearshore fisheries were typically restricted to a few 

 small open boats engaged in market fisheries almost 

 exclusively in the winter months up to the Civil War 

 (Collins, 1890). It appears that Stellwagen Bank 

 was not heavily exploited by the schooner-based 

 fisheries because Georges Bank was more lucrative 

 (Collins, 1889). Growth of the trawler and dragger 

 fishing industries focused attention back to 

 Stellwagen Bank in this century. 



The late 19th/early 20th century saw the highest 

 level of coastal shipping in the Northeast (Fish, 

 1989). At the turn of this century, the region saw 

 its greatest number of shipwrecks per year (Fish, 

 1989). Primary causes of vessel loss (shipwrecks) 

 fall into four broad classes: (1) acts of war - naval 



engagements, piracy, law enforcement; (2) natural 

 forces - storms (gales/hurricanes); (3) human error 

 - seamanship, fire, collision; (4) abandonment - for 

 the reasons stated above, plus vessel condition, 

 economic reasons. 



Bias may exist in the historical jmd documentary 

 record to selectively not record location or other 

 information on shipwreck sites which do not pose a 

 hazard to navigation, involve human tragedy, or 

 carry valuable cargo. Government data are aimed 

 at identifying and locating those man-made and 

 natural objects which are hazards to navigation. In 

 many instances of deep water shipwrecks, the 

 reported locations are approximated and not 

 verified because they do not pose a hazard to 

 navigation. Further, reUable location information is 

 in private hands (sport divers, researchers, 

 fishermen) whose varying purposes and needs 

 generally preclude making this information public. 



Most available pubhshed sources of shipwreck 

 information concentrate on "romance of the sea," 

 and/or major calamities and disasters; their 

 audience is typically popular and not scholarly. 

 Many of these works are laundry hsts of shipwrecks 

 often published without sources. Further, many 

 works reflect a certain selective presentation of facts 

 such as including only larger vessels or those 

 carrying "valuable" cargo. Thus, vessel loss is, in 

 general, unrecorded. 



The ambiguity of location given for most 

 maritime disasters generally precludes establishing 

 statements of impacts to specific resources. 

 Ambiguity exists over the reported locations of 

 shipwrecks, particularly at sea and the types of 

 vessel losses reported. Typically, the presumed 

 nearest landfall is used when the shipwreck does not 

 occur at a recognized landmark, that is, on shore, 

 on rocks, near a buoy marker or lightship. 

 References such as off-Provincetown, off-Cape Ann, 

 off-Massachusetts Coast, or off-New England, or 

 "left port never to be heard of again," are frequently 

 the only description of shipwreck locations. 

 Additionally, for most Colonial writers, places of 

 loss were far less important to record than who and 

 what were lost. 



