BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 273 
III.— THE PREPARATION OF BLOATER HERRING. 
While the smoking of hard herring is very extensive, the bloater-her- 
ring business is important. Prior to the termination of the treaty of 
Washington, Grand Manan, Campobello Island, and other British 
islands in the vicinity put up considerable quantities of bloaters, which 
were shipped direct to Boston and New York ; but the duty of half a 
cent per pound or 15 to 18 cents per box is so great, that they can no 
longer successfully compete with Americans, even though the price of 
material and labor is considerably cheaper. The principal supply of 
bloater herring is obtained between the middle of October and the last 
of November by the fleet of small vessels fishing off Grand Manan. The 
fish are taken in nets and lightly salted in the vessel’s hold until such 
time as the American vessels that have been sent out to purchase them 
arrive. They are then transferred to these vessels and carried to East- 
port, where they are soaked out, strung, and lightly smoked. They are 
next packed in boxes of 100 fish each, and shipped to Portland and Bos- 
ton and other leading cities. Formerly the trade was almost exclu- 
sively with Portland, and the fish ultimately found their way to the 
Canadian markets ; but of late increasingproportions are being shipped 
to the West, and Chicago now receives and distributes a large percent- 
age of the products. 
IV.— THE SMOKING OF FINNEN HADDIES. 
Eastport was formerly more extensively employed in the preparation 
of finnen haddies than any other city in the United States except 
Portland. The trade was at its height between 1875 and 1882, when 
it gradually began to decline. During the years when the operations 
were most extensive large quantities of haddies were smoked, nearly all 
of them going to Portland, from which place they were distributed to the 
New England retail trade and to Canada ; but the development of the sar- 
dine interests at Eastport have furnished employment to the American 
fishermen formerly engaged in catching the haddock, and these have 
found it desirable to remain on shore. It is also claimed that haddock 
are less abundant than formerly upon the grounds heretofore visited by 
the fishermen, who think the fish are how frequenting other localities. 
Formerly large quantities were taken in St. Andrew’s Bay, but now 
it is said that scarcely a dozen haddock could be obtained as the result 
of a day’s fishing. The principal fishing-ground of recent years for East- 
port fishermen has, however, been in the mouth of the Bay of Fundy 
to the eastward of Grand Manan, and in the vicinity of the Wolves. 
Here, too, it is claimed that the haddock have decreased considerably 
in abundance; but, while this may be true, the fact that those formerly 
engaged in catching them find employment in the sardine factories 
and in catching or handling the frozen herring, has probably had a 
more marked influence upon the haddock fisheries than any decrease 
Bull. U. S. F. 0., 87—18 
