STATISTICS OF THE CATCH OF COD OFF THE EAST COAST 
OF NORTH AMERICA TO 1926! 
By Oscar E. Serre, Assistant in Charge, Division of Fishery Industries 
The fishery for cod on the east coast of North America is probably 
the most international fishery of North America. No less than five 
nations have an important part in it; named in order of the size of 
their cod catch they are Newfoundland, France, Canada, the United 
States, and Portugal.? This report is intended to bring together the 
available statistics on this fishery in order to show its size, trend, and 
relative importance of the fisheries of each participating country. 
As the statistics of each country are shown in different units of 
quantity and represent various stages in the preparation of cod for 
market, all have been reduced to the same basis—pounds of round 
cod as caught. The treatment of the data is given in detail for each 
country in the following sections. 
NEWFOUNDLAND 
With the exception of the year 1925, the only statistics available 
on the total production of cod by Newfoundland are the number of 
quintals of dry-salted cod exported annually. Statistics on this 
subject are available from 1804 to date. The data for 1804 to 1904, 
inclusive, are taken from ‘“‘Report on the Trade and Commerce of 
Newfoundland for the Four Years ended June 30, 1906,” by William 
MacGregor; from the annual reports of the Department of Marine 
and Fisheries for the years 1905 to 1924; and from the report of the 
American consul, St. Johns, Newfoundland, for 1925 and 1926. Itis 
understood that these include the catch on the Labrador coast as 
well as that of Newfoundland proper. Virtually all of the catch is 
exported. In a letter of December 1, 1926, Alan Goodridge, deputy 
minister, says: ‘‘To this (export) may be added, roughly, three 
quintals per family eaten during the year. There are, roughly, 
80,000 families in the population of 275,000.” This gives us an esti- 
mate of 240,000 quintals of cod consumed in Newfoundland in 1925. 
On this basis it is possible to make an estimate of the amounts con- 
sumed in previous years, on the basis of previous populations, figures 
for which are given in Table 1. 
TasBLE 1.—Population of Newfoundland, various years, 1804 to 1925 





Year | Population Source of information 
| 
ES UY Sy Ste ec 20,000 | Encyclopedia Brittanica. 
theS p= See eee 60, 000 Do. 
pire 2 ot Se eee ee eee 75, 094 Do 
OE ee Ae a 124, 288 Do. 
UC 28. Beet be ee ee 161, 374 Do. 
fs is 5 ee ee eee eee 220, 249 | International Encyclopedia. 
ep eee cate ee ee eee ee 263, 383 | World Almanac. 
(Clo ee eee eee 259, 358 | American Annual. 
py is Se Se eee 27%, 600 | Goodridge Letter. 

1 Appendix I X to Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries for 1927. B. F. Doc. No. 1034. Contri- 
bution No. 1 from the North American Committee on Atlantic Fishery Investigations. : 
2 The Greenland cod fishery has been omitted from this report because it is comparatively unimportant 
and for lack of complete statistics. During the five years 1919 to 1923 the annual yield averaged 525,000 
kilograms of salt cod and klipfish, the equivalent of about 3,500,000 pounds of fresh round cod. 
88167—28 (ge 
