688 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



In 1819 the fisheries were in such a state of depression that Congress 

 passed "the bounty act" for their encouragement. This seemed to put 

 new Ufe into the business, and in 1825 over 150 sail fitted out for the 

 different banks, and by 1847 the fleet had been increased to 287 sail, 

 with an aggregate of 12,354 tons, or an average of 43 tons, carpenters' 

 measurement, to the vessel. The Cape Ann fishermen first visited the 

 famous George's Bank fishing-gTounds about 1830, and by 1850 this 

 locality had become a favorite resort for both the cod and halibut fleets. 



In the spring of 1879 there were 39 fishing-firms at Gloucester, and 

 378 fishing-vessels of over 5 tons burden sailing from the harbor. Of 

 this fleet 174 sail visited the distant banks for cod, 44 engaged exclu- 

 sively in the halibut fisheries, GQ Avere provided with purse-seines for 

 catching mackerel, 8 fished for both cod and halibut, 78 fished along 

 the shore for cod, pollock, haddock, hake, and cusk, and the remaining 

 8 sailed about in search of squid to supply the bank cod-fishermen with 

 bait. Of the 174 offshore cod-fishermen, 130 went to George's and 

 Brown's Banks, and the remainder to La Have, Quereau, Western and 

 Grand Banks. In addition to the above the other towns of the vicinity 

 had each smaU fleets engaged in some branch of the fisheries ; so that 

 the total number of fishing- vessels belonging to Cape Ann at this time 

 reached upward of 415 sail. 



Thus the fisheries of Cape Ann have been continuously prosecuted 

 for two hundred and forty years. Small at first, they have met with 

 varying success, reaching their lowest ebb about the year 1800, since 

 which time they have gradually grown in importance, until to-day Cai)e 

 Ann is the center of the marine fisheries of America 5 and Gloucester, 

 which from its excellent natural advantages early became x)romiuent, 

 has continually strengthened itself, until it has come to be the great 

 fishery metropolis of the country; and is now, by the aid of laws and 

 business customs, which tend to transfer the business from the fisher- 

 men to the capitalists and from the smaller to the larger dealers, grad- 

 ually absorbing the fishing interests of the State. 



With this large fleet engaged in the various branches of the fisheries, 

 and visiting so many different localities, the quantity of fish landed in 

 Gloucester is enormous ; the cod fish alone for the year ending June 30, 

 1879, reaching 36,665,020 pounds of cured fish, which, at the low average 

 of three cents per pound, would have a total value of about $1,100,000, 

 This quantity of cured fish represents not far from 91,650,000 pounds of 

 round fish, or, on the supposition that the fish average 15 pounds each, 

 over 6,100,000 cod in number. These figures, though not absolutely cor- 

 rect, probably vary but little either way from the actual number landed 

 in Gloucester during the year mentioned. The data from which the cal- 

 culations have been made were taken partly from the weekly reports of 

 the Cape Ann Advertiser and partly from notes made during my stay 

 in Gloucester. 



