1050 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [24] 

 V. — COMMERCIAL ASPECTS OF THIS QUESTION. 



The cod fisheries are carried on on the coasts of Iceland and New- 

 foundland from April till the middle of September, and more than 

 12,000 of the best class of fishermen and sailors are engaged in these 

 fisheries. 



The codfish are not caught in the same manner near Iceland as near 

 Newfoundland. Fn Iceland fishing is going on while the vessel is 

 moving, drawing the fishing-lines after it. The fishermen constantly 

 raise these lines, and the codfish pass direct from the sea into the ves- 

 sel which is to take them to France. When they reach the deck of the 

 vessel the head is cut off and the abdominal viscera are removed, among 

 which is the roe, which is to be used as bait in the sardine fisheries, and 

 the liver, from which oil is to be extracted. Then the fish are cut open 

 and a portidn of the backbone is removed; whereupon they are washed, 

 salted, and piled up in the hold of the vessel. 



Near Newfoundland the fisheries are carried on in a different way. 

 Lines with hooks are immersed in the water and left there from one 

 tide to the other. At each tide small boats are -sent out from the ves. 

 sel to raise the lines. The codfish are at first received in these small 

 boats, or dories, which convey them to the vessel. There is therefore 

 a double handling, which does not take place in the Iceland fisheries. 

 As regards the methods of preparing the codfish, they are the same in 

 both countries. We should also bear iu mind the fact that the temper- 

 ature of Iceland is much colder than that of Newfoundland. 



These details are of importance regarding the question before us, for 

 they may have to be taken into account iu explaining the fact, which 

 has been duly observed, that the codfish caught near Iceland turn red 

 more rarely than those caught near Newfoundland. 



In 1885 the average quantity of codfish taken by each fishing vessel 

 near Newfoundland was from 3,500 to 5,000 quintals. A boat manned 

 by 24 men can take at each tide about 5,000 codfish. The largest fish- 

 ing vessels can carry as many as 180,000 codfish. 



It is probable that if Dr. Bertherand, of Algiers, had been acquainted 

 with the above-mentioned fact when he read his treatise on the poison- 

 ous fungus at the meeting of the scientific societies held in Paris in 

 April, 1884, he would not have proposed as a remedy for preventing 

 the growth of this fungus, to arrange in the fishing vessels tanks in 

 which live codfish could be conveyed to Trance. Without mentioning 

 other impossibilities we must say that no vessel would be large enough 

 to hold tanks for 180,000 live codfish, many of which are 3 feet long. 

 It is true that the fish might be distributed among a number of vessels, 

 but what an enormous fleet would be required to convey to France in 

 tanks the 1,200,000 quintals of codfish which represent the annual yield 

 of these fisheries. All the vessels of the French merchant marine 

 would not suffice, not to speak of the enormous expense which this 

 mode of transportation would involve. 



