FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK. 61 



Gill-Net Codfishing in Ipswich Bay. 



The Winter of 1880-81 will be memorable in local fishing annals as wit- 

 nessing the first successful attempt at net-fishing for cod in our waters, a 

 method that promises to make as marked a change in the shore fishery as 

 was wrought by the introduction of trawl fishing a few years previously. 

 This method of fishing has long been followed by the Newfoundland fisher- 

 men, and it is said that the Norwegians take half the number and two-thirds 

 the weight of their immense catch of codfish in this manner. 



Impressed with the importance of the saving made in the cost of bait, and 

 of time consumed in procuring bait, Prof. Baird decided in the Summer of 

 1878, when the Summer quarters of the Fish Commission were located in 

 Gloucester, to experiment as to the practicability of introducing the Norwe- 

 gian methods in our waters. Accordingly, he procured a set of Norwegian 

 gill nets, which attracted considerable attention at the laboratory of the 

 Commission at Fort Wharf, from their novel construction and curious glass 

 floats. When the Winter school of codfish set in, in the Fall of 1878, exper- 

 iments were made with these nets on the "Old Man's Pasture," but it was 

 found that the nets were too frail for the large cod which frequent our coast 

 in Winter, and for the strong current and rocky bottom along our shores. 

 The result of the experiment, however, was such as to indicate that net- 

 fishing might be made practicable, with properly constructed nets, and 

 Prof. Baird continued his investigation of the method, and on the occasion 

 of the International Fisheries Exhibit at Berlin in the Spring of 1880 dele- 

 gated Capt. Joseph W. Collins of Gloucester to make a careful study of the 

 European methods of deep sea fishing, the result of which has been pub- 

 lished by the Government for the information of the American fishermen. 

 Meanwhile the Norwegian seines remained at the Gloucester headquarters 

 of the Fish Commission, with the understanding that they were at the ser- 

 vice of any responsible master who desired to experiment with them. 



In the Fall of 1880 the scarcity of bait interfered with the successful pros- 

 ecution of the shore fishery, and at the suggestion of Capt. Stephen J. Mar- 

 tin, an attache of the Commission, his son, Capt. George H. Martin, decided 

 to make a trial of net fishing in the schooner Northern Eagle of Gloucester. 

 Securing the nets belonging to the Commission, and procuring others of 

 improved construction, the Northern Eagle made a thorough trial of this 

 method of fishing for shore cod in Ipswich Bay in the Winter of 1880-81, 

 with such success that before the season closed quite a number of the shore 

 fleet provided themselves with similar outfits. The Northern Eagle was 

 supplied with three dories, each requiring three nets, which were set at night 



