fishing outports prevents their partici- 

 pation in this market. 



b. The Offshore Fleet 



The deep-sea fishery has a long his- 

 tory. Until recent years schooners of 70 

 to 125 tons were used mainly. The schooners 

 were equipped with both sails and engines, 

 and carried crews of from lU to 25 men. 

 The fishermen, when on the banks, fished 

 in pairs from small dories and used long 

 trawl lines with 50O to 6OO short lines 

 which carried live bait. Each day's catch 

 was split, cleaned, washed, and salted. 

 The day of the dory schooner is rapidly 

 ending, however. None over $0 gross tons 

 is left in Newfoundland and only 13 remain 

 in the Maritime s and Quebec. Dory schooners 

 in Newfoundland in 1937 enployed 2,300 men 

 and produced 28,000,000 pounds of salted 

 codfish. Since 1952, none of the fish 

 landed by the Newfoundland deep-sea fishery- 

 has been salted. 



Since V/orld VJar II the Canadian Atlan- 

 tic seafisheries have witnessed a marked 

 growth in more productive offshore fishing 

 methods. For many years there was a ban in 

 the Canadian Provinces on the use of otter 

 trawlers similar to the ones used in New 

 England since 1905- It was claimed that 

 their dragging operations would destroy the 

 inshore fishery which was the support of 

 thousands of serai -subsistence fishermen. 

 These fishermen were a political force 

 which could not be discounted by govern- 

 ment. After 1929, draggers were gradually 

 elirainatsd from the fishing fleets, with 

 the result that groundfish landings in the 

 Maritime Proviiices dropped from 250 mil- 

 lion to 230 million pounds between 1920 

 and I9U0. During the same period, the New 

 England groundfish industry, throu^ in- 

 creased use of draggers, increased its 

 catch from 200 million pounds to UOO rail- 

 lion pounds. 



In latter years, however, the govem- 

 nents have recognized the need to increase 

 the fisherman's productivity in order to 



raise his level of income and, also, to 

 enable the industry to take advantage of 

 a rapidly expanding market for fresh and 

 frozen groundfish. The growth of produc- 

 tion for this market was possible only 

 through the use of trawlers, as fresh and 

 frozen fillet processors cannot rely on 

 the production vagaries of a seasonal 

 scattered inshore primary fishery. Moi^- 

 over, frozen fillet processors need large 

 supplies of fresh fish and cannot afford 

 the time or the cost involved in getting 

 such fish from the outport areas. 



The need for a greater volume of fish 

 for the expanding market for frozen ground- 

 fish fillets has been met in two principal 

 ways. One has been to relax the restric- 

 tions on the acquisition and use of trawl- 

 ers and draggers. The other has been to 

 use govemraental subsidies and loans for 

 the construction of new fishing craft of 

 approved types and sizes. 



The growth in numbers of large otter 

 trawlers in the Atlantic Provinces was 

 substantial between 19li7 and 1956. 2h/ 

 There were 26 vessels in the trawler fleet 

 in 19)47; by 1956 there were 57. In Nova 

 Scotia, where there were only 6 such boats 

 in 19ii9, there were 3li in 1955. The amount 

 of otter trawling from Nova Scotian ports 

 doubled between I9k7 and 1952. Between 

 1952 and 1955, in the same area, otter 

 trawler landings also doubled. Newfound- 

 land had 22 otter trawlers in 1956 versus 

 11 in 195U. There are no large trawlers 

 operating in the other Atlantic Provinces. 

 Most of the increase in the otter trawler 

 fleet resulted from imports of new or used 

 vessels, particularly frora Great Britain 

 and New England. Although as of June I96O 

 plans exist for several new and large 

 trawler additions to the fleet, no addi- 

 tional trawlers have appeared in Nova 

 Scotia since 1956 and only one more in 

 Newfoundland. One deterrent has been the 

 recent "one-for-one" policy of the Do- 

 minion government. Under this plan a boat 

 can be imported only if the operator 

 builds another one in a Canadian yard. 



3h/ Small trawlers are those under 50 gross tons. Medium trawlers are those 50 gross 

 tons up to 150. A large trawler is 150 gross tons or over. 



18 



