FISHERIES: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
by 
Mr. W. Leigh Bridges 
Division of Marine Fisheries 
Massachusetts Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and 
Recreational Vehicles 
Boston, MA 
Massachusetts has a long history in fisheries. In Boston Harbor, it dates back to 
colonial times, to the 1620s. When Squantum Point was first settled, people began 
clamming and lobstering. Since that time the fishing community has grown in 
Massachusetts, particularly in Boston Harbor. During World War II, Boston fishermen 
landed over 200,000,000 pounds of fish on an annual basis, and Boston was the major 
processing and distribution center in New England. 
More recently, Boston has diminished as an offshore port. The landings have 
declined to 20,000,000 pounds and fishing vessels have moved to other ports. However, 
Boston remains a processing and distribution center. Massachusetts fishermen statewide 
land about 350,000,000 pounds of fish a year, which is worth approximately $1.5 billion on 
an annual basis to the state's economy. 
The three major fisheries within the Harbor are the lobster fishery, the shellfish 
fishery, and the recreational finfish fishery. In 1983, the lobster fishery, consisting of 
approximately 120 lobster fishermen, landed about 3,000,000 pounds of lobster and was 
valued at $7.3 million (Nash, 1984). The recreational finfish fishery consists primarily of 
a winter flounder sport fishery located throughout the Harbor, but principally in Quincy 
Bay. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) surveyed this fishery in 1975 
and determined that there were about 166,000 angler trips in the sport fishery in Boston 
Harbor in 1975. Utilizing that number of angler trips and applying the value of an angler 
day from the National Hunting and Fishing Survey in 1980, DMF estimates that the 
recreational finfish fishery in Boston Harbor is presently worth about $4 million annually. 
Finally, the third largest fishery within the Harbor itself is the shellfish fishery. 
While about 4,700 productive acres of shellfish flats could support a commercial fishery, 
about 2,800 acres are open at any one time to restricted harvesting of shellfish. The 
State allows Master Diggers and Subordinate Diggers under a special permit program to 
harvest shellfish from moderately contaminated shellfish areas and to transport those 
shellfish to the Purification Plant in Newburyport. There they are depurated over a 48- 
hour period to reduce the coliform bacteria so they can be marketed. Last year, DMF 
processed just under 50,000 bushels of clams from Boston Harbor, valued at $2 million. A 
conservative estimate on the annual value of all harvested fishery resources in Boston 
Harbor is $13 million. 
DMF has conducted many biological studies throughout the State in the last 20 
years. In the early 1960s and 1970s, we collected and published baseline fishery and water 
