LIFE ON THE GRAND BANKS 



1) 



A BANKS FISHING-SCHOONER 



In European waters fleets of steam trawlers supply the fish markets, but in the North Ameri- 

 can fisheries the fast-sailing, seaworthy schooner is still mistress of the Grand Banks. 



As most people know, the Banks are 

 vast areas of shoal water lying at vari- 

 ous distances off the eastern coasts of the 

 United States and Canada and south and 

 east of Newfoundland. Upon these 

 Banks, in depths ranging from 15 to 200 

 fathoms, tremendous numbers of certain 

 demersal species of fish are to be found 

 at various seasons. Cod is the common- 

 est variety caught ; haddock ranks sec- 

 ond, while hake, pollock, cusk, halibut, 

 . c kate, whiting, catfish, wolf-fish, monk- 

 fish, and lumpfish are also marketed. 



FISHING WITH A LINE NEARLY HALF A 

 MILE LONG 



In the offshore fisheries upon the 

 Banks, none of these fish are caught by 

 net unless by steam trawling. In the 

 schooner fishery the long-line, misnamed 

 "trawl" by fishermen, and hand-line are 

 used exclusively. 



The long-line is, as its name implies, a 

 long line, ranging from 2,100 to 2,400 

 feet in length, and is made of thin, but 

 incredibly strong, tarred cotton. 



Into this "back line," or "ground line," 



are spliced thinner lines, called "snoods"" 

 or "gangens," at thirty- to forty-inch in- 

 tervals. These snoods are usually from 

 twenty to thirty inches long, and a strong 

 steel hook is bent to each. Thus, on each 

 long-line there are from 600 to 80a 

 snoods and hooks. 



Each long-line is coiled down in a 

 wooden tub — often made by the fisher- 

 men themselves by cutting down a flour 

 barrel — and every hook has to be baited 

 before the "gear" is set. 



In halibut fishing a much heavier line 

 and hook are used, and as the snoods are 

 spliced or bent into the ground-line at 

 lengthier intervals, there is consequently 

 a lesser number of hooks affixed to a coil 

 of halibut gear. 



THE ACTUAL FISHING IS FROM THE DORIES 



Halibut line is not coiled down in tubs, 

 but secured, when not in use, by a small 

 square of canvas from which four pieces 

 of short rope depend. The coil is placed 

 upon the canvas and the ropes are used 

 to lash the gear up in a compact bundle, 

 the whole being called by fishermen "a 



