The economic implications of the re- 

 soxirce potential available to the fishery 

 must be appreciated clearly if sagacious 

 action is to be taken to aid the industry. 

 An exsimination of the history and present 

 status of the haddock resource may con- 

 tribute to an understanding of this basic 

 problem. Haddock, as indicated previously, 

 is New England's most valuable groundfish. 

 For nearly thirty years, it has been the 

 subject of Intense biological investiga- 

 tion by United States Fish and Wildlife 

 Service specialists. Today, it is possible 

 to predict the following year«s catch with 

 substantial accuracy. While much remains 

 to be studied, enough has been done to 

 make possible a cost of production analyses 

 based upon biological fact. 



There are two varieties of marketable 

 haddock in the fishery. One is large 

 haddock or haddock weighing over 2§ povuids* 

 The other is small haddock, more commonly 

 known as "scrod," which weighs from 1^ to 

 2j pounds. 



1, History Of The Resoxiree Utilization 



During the nineteenth century the 

 New England fisherman always found haddock 

 in abundance on Georges Bank. His interest 

 was, however, primarily to seek cod. Had- 

 dock was not as well suited to preserving 

 methods as cod, and the haddock fresh-fish 

 market was limited to seacoast areas. The 

 introduction of the filleting process in 

 1921 and of the quidc-freezing techniques 

 in 1925 occasioned a tremendous increase 

 in the market demand for haddock. 12/ 



From 1891 to 1903 annual United States 

 haddock landings averaged about 55 million 

 pounds annually, (table ni-3)» Ihese 

 increased to an annual average of about 77 

 million pounds in the 1901^ to 1918 period. 

 The growth of a national market for haddock 

 fillets led to greater fishing intensity, 

 and landings in New QigLand juroped from 

 93.5 raLllion pounds in 192li to nearly 256 



million pounds in 1929. 3/ Landings at 

 the principal haddock port, Boston, in- 

 creased from 7^^ million pounds in 1920 to 

 190 million pounds in 1930. The fishery, 

 however, could not sustain the increased 

 catch, and since 1931 landings from the 

 base resource area, Georges Bank, have 

 stabilized between 85 and 96 million 

 pounds annually. 



Striking changes have occurred in the 

 Georges Bank haddock fishery since 191^* 

 The history of the fishery may be divided 

 into three periods r 191U-26; 1927-30; 

 1931 to the present. The first and last 

 are relatively stable periods in terms of 

 annual landings, catch per day in pounds, 

 in numbers of fish caught and in effort 

 e3?)ended. The 1927-30 fishery, however, 

 witnessed significant and short-lived 

 changes in both catch and effort. The 

 catch reached an all-time high in 1929, 

 vhen 223 million pounds were landed, and 

 the effort reached an all-time high in 

 1930 when 16,000 days were used. 



The modern fishery is substantially 

 different from that of the two earlier 

 periods in terms of annual landings, catch 

 per day, effort expended, and size of fish 

 caught, (tables Ill-li and III-5). In the 

 1917-26 period annual landings averaged 

 {u*ound 66,130,000 pounds, catch per day 

 fished was around 30,000 pounds, fishing 

 effort averaged 2,200 days, and the great 

 proportion of fish landed was large 

 haddock. In the 1927-30 expansion of the 

 fishery, annual landings from Georges Bank 

 averaged about 185 million pounds, catch 

 per day declined precipitously from Ui,000 

 pounds in 1927 to 11,500 po\inds in 1930, 

 while fishing effort increased sharply 

 from 2,lj00 days in 1926 to 16,000 days in 

 1930. Scrod haddock was still an insig- 

 nificant segment of total landings, as 

 the effort spent was reducing a more 

 adult stock. 



Since 1931> annual landings f^om 



70/ Harrington, William C. Decline in Haddock Abundance on Georges Bank and a 

 Practical Remedy . United States Department of the interior. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service, Washington, D. C.,1936. p. 2. 



71/ Fishery Statistics of the United States, 1956 . p. 95. 



Uo 



