The present sport fishery for trout is 

 quite valuable but is based chiefly on 

 fish which do not go to sea. Tomcod, 

 shad, and striped bass are not fished 

 commercially in the Quoddy Region but 

 provide valuable fisheries in warmer, 

 less saline estuaries. Smelt populations 

 are probably localized and may stay 

 within Passamaquoddy and Cobscook Bays, 

 whereas alewives move into and out of 

 these Bays. 



Miscellaneous . --Marine worms, valued 

 as bait for sport fishing, are harvested 

 in small quantities in Cobscook Bay. 

 Rockweed is a potentially valuable re- 

 source and is available in good supply. 

 The gribble (Limnoria), a crustacean wood 

 borer, is common in the Quoddy Region, 

 and damages caused by it are significant. 



ECONOMIC STUDIES 



Economic surveys of the principal 

 fisheries of Charlotte County, N. B., and 

 of the Passamaquoddy section of the 

 State of Maine, were made for the years 

 1956 and 1957. The study assessed the 

 investment and income position of the 

 herring and lobster fisheries, including 

 the herring-carrier fleet, and determined 

 the value of investment in plant and 

 equipment and the manufacturing costs 

 of fish-processing establishments. 

 Groundfish and shellfish, species of com- 

 mercial importance, were not covered by 

 the economic surveys but were studied 

 from other statistical sources. The re- 

 sults provide a basis for evaluating the 

 economic impact of any change in the 

 primary and secondary fisheries of the 

 Quoddy Region. The primary fishery in- 

 cludes all activities associated with 

 catching fish and delivering them tc the 

 processing plants; the secondary fishery 

 includes the fish-processing activities 

 after delivery of the fish to the plant. 



Canadian fisheries 



The investigation of the primary fishery 

 was conducted on a sannple basis. For the 

 secondary fishery, a complete coverage 

 was made of processors from Blacks 

 Harbour to the International Boundary. 



Herring weir fishery. --Like most in- 

 shore fisheries, the Canadian herring 



weir fishery is decentralized and de- 

 pendent upon intensive application of 

 labor. It is organized in small enter- 

 prise units, consisting typically of one 

 weir (with a crew of about four men per 

 weir), in which the traditional "lay" 

 (share) system of payment to labor and 

 capital still prevails. About 50 percent 

 of the weir workers are hired laborers-- 

 tendermen, so-called--who have no equity 

 in the capital of the enterprise but tend 

 and operate weirs for a predetermined 

 share of the season's catch. Only in a 

 few, isolated cases do these workers 

 receive a stipulated money wage. Thus, 

 owners are relieved of a great deal of 

 risk and uncertainty; the risk is further 

 reduced by the fact that equity capital in 

 most weir enterprises is small and spread 

 among several owners. 



Despite a basic similarity in weir 

 construction, considerable variation in 

 weir investment exists within and between 

 different parts of Charlotte County. This 

 variation is due to differences in weir 

 sizes and in topographic andoceanographic 

 environment. Survey data obtained for 

 1956 and 1957 revealed an average weir 

 investment (including associated weir 

 gear) of about $5,500 inside Passama- 

 quoddy Bay and of about $6,200 outside 

 the Bay. Total investment in weir enter- 

 prises for the entire region was placed 

 at $1.7 million. Approximately 1,100 men 

 are engaged in the weir fishery. 



Income derived from the weir fishery 

 is largely a function of the success of 

 the catch. Owing to the nature of the 

 market, prices which fishermen receive 

 are relatively inflexible. At the same 

 time, operating expenditures are fairly 

 stable and subject to little influence 

 from variations in receipts. Consequently, 

 fluctuations in catches within the region 

 and from year to year can engender wide 

 variations in earnings among fishermen, 

 and a series of unsuccessful catches can 

 leave the weirmen in rather poor cir- 

 ctimstances. 



Data obtained on 86 weir enterprises 

 for 1956 and 1957 provided tangible evi- 

 dence of this connection. In 1956, oper- 

 ating incomes of these enterprises ranged 

 from $-1,671 to $15,565; in 1957, from 

 $-1,653 to $16,117. Average net income 

 per enterprise was $1,385 and $2,040, 



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