COD STATISTICS TO 1926 747 
SUMMARY 
The cod catches of the countries participating in the fishery off the 
oe coast of North America are summarized in Tables 10 and 11 and 
igure 1. 
During the last 30 years the total catch of cod averaged 1, 103, 000,- 
000 pounds annually, varying between 872,000,000 and 1 339, 000, 000 
pounds. The plotted curve of total annual production appears at 
the beginning of the 30-year period to be rising from a minimum, 
which probably occurred in 1893, to a maximum in 1899 to 1902; 
another minimum occurred in 1904, a maximum in 1908 to 1910, and 
another minimum in 1914. Since then the yield has been increasing 
fairly continuously. If a straight-line trend were fitted to the curve 
it would be nearly horizontal. Thus we may conclude that, on the 
whole, the productivity of the cod fishery, while subject to fluctuations, 
has neither increased nor declined during the last three decades. 



= NEWFOUNDLAND 
aps 
< 3 
a 
MILLIONS OF POUNDS (ON FRESH ROUND BASIS) 


19802 4 6 8189024 6 819002 4 6 819102 4 6 819202 4 6 
FIGURE |.- THE CATCH OF COD OFF THE EAST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA. 
With regard to the yields of the separate countries the situation is 
somewhat different. Newfoundland had the lion’s share of this 
fishery, her catch averaging 538,000,000 pounds, or 49 per cent of 
the total, during the 30-year period. In general, it has been increas- 
ing since 1890. Canada averaged 225,000,000 pounds, or 20 per 
cent of the total, during the 30 years. ‘On the whole, her yield has 
suffered a general decline but has been recovering moderately since 
1913. The French catch averaged 190,000,000 pounds, or 17 per 
cent of the total, and has been subject to such large fluctuations 
that it is difficult to say whether there has been any well-defined 
trend during the last 30 years, though since 1880 the trend has been 
slightly upward. The United States yield averaged 130,000,000 
pounds, or 12 per cent, during the 30-year period, and, on the whole, 
shows a distinctly downward trend. Since 1916, however, there 
have been farily consistent increases. The Portuguese catch aver- 
aged 19,000,000 pounds, or 2 per cent of the total, for the last 30 
years. Tts trend has been noticeably upward. 
