32 



COM-IEECIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



Vol. 13, Ho. 7. 



taken from the shallow floor of Annapolis Basin which, for the time being, is no 

 longer productive. The draggers now go far out in the Bay of Fundy. Few of the 

 men of the scallop fleet actually live in Digby; most of them have their homes 

 elsewhere along the Fundy shore and are known as Bay Shore men. They sleep aboard 

 when in port. Digby' s great value as a home for the fleet lies in its deep water 

 harbor in which boats need not be stranded by the high Fundy tides. 



The season for all beds within seven miles of shore is from October 1 to April 30, 

 and until recently scalloping was considered strictly a winter fishing effort. New 

 methods of freezing, together with fast transportation, have made the scallop a 

 year-round dish and more and more vessels are f isning the offshore grounds outside 



the seven-mile limit during the 

 summer time, when generally 

 calmer weather permits more fish- 

 ing time than would the winter 

 months. Even on the inshore 

 grounds within the seven-mile 

 line the average number of fish- 

 ing days, out of a 212-day sea- 

 son, is only 58, The reason that 

 winter storms keep the fleet in 

 port is that rough water causes 

 the heavy steel scallop drags to 

 jump about on the bottom and 

 makes them dangerous to handle 

 on deck, thus reducing the catch 

 and increasing the hazard. 



■Die mainstay of the winter 

 fleet for several years during 

 the 1940 ' a was the "four-mile" 

 ground. The "hour" ground (an hour's run from the fairway buoy at Digby Gut) was 

 first fished in the 1930's, and until I'^IS was less important to the fishery than 

 the "four-mile" ground. Since then, however, the reverse is true. The depth of 

 the water over the "hour" ground, about 10 miles out, is 50 fathoms or more. 



Water Temperatures Affect Scallop Stocks : Die scallop catch varies greatly, 

 not only from month to month but from year to year, and charts of comparative land- 

 ings show a fairly regular series of high and low points. From its beginnings in 

 1921, the fishery increased to its first peak in 1927. It reached a record high 

 in 1937 and exceptionally good catches were made in 19Ztl and 1945. Investigations 

 of the Research Board indicate that these changes in landings are not caused by the 

 fishing effort but from changes in abundance determined by hydrographic conditions 

 that are beyond human control. It appears that water temperatures in the Bay of 

 Fundy during the spawning season in the late summer can seriously affect the stocks 

 of shellfish. The scallops ( Placopecten grandis ) taken by Digby fishermen are 

 usually from five to seven years old — it is illegal to sell Bay of Fundy scallops 

 whose shells are less than four inches in diameter. 



Size of Fleet and Type of Vessel : In the I95O-5I season the Digby fleet was 

 made up of about 20 draggers built especially for scalloping. Their other uses 

 are limited, although the holds can be sealed for carrying herring from weirs to 

 canneries in New Brunswick and Maine. A typical Digby scalloper (value about 

 C$12, 000) is a 20-ton vessel about 62 feet long with a beam of I5 feet 6 inches 

 and a draft of 5 feet. It carries two gasoline engines, each 87 h.p., and is 

 manned by the skipper, a winchman who -operates the engine for towing and hoisting 



TYPICAL DIGBY SCALLOP BOAT. 



