The Tail of the Fish
The story of the Northwestern Atlantic Cod fishery begins in June of 1497 when John Cabot found what he called “New Found Land” and claimed it for the British. While the Basques had been fishing for cod in this area secretly for years, most of the cod fishing occurred off the coast of Europe. The cod would be caught and then dried in the cold winds in the northern part of Europe and by salt in the southern parts. That is why “New Found Land” was the perfect place to fish as it was near massive cod stocks and had a perfect climate for curing the cod. (2)
After Cabot’s discovery, the British brought fleets over to Newfoundland to sustain the growing European desire for cod as 60% of all fish eaten in Europe in 1550 was the cod. The increasing need for cod resulted in further explorations of the continental shelf off of the New World. One of these explorations was conducted by Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602. The seas in which he sailed were so full of cod that they were said to be slowing his boat down. Gosnold named this area Cape Cod. Another notable exploration was in 1614 when John Smith fished and charted the waters and shoreline of today’s Maine and Massachusetts. He came back to England with 47,000 cod. (2)
Having been inspired by Smith’s immense catch, hundreds of ships followed him to the New World. One of these ships contained the Pilgrims, who actually had come to the New World in search of religious freedom and not the bounty found in cod fishing. Nevertheless, they eventually founded the fishing stations at Salem, Dorchester, Marblehead, and Penobscot Bay. By 1640, the newly-named Massachusetts Bay Colony harvested and sold 300,000 cod. (2)
Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and New England combined fishing efforts for maximum profit. Fishing in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland was done in the summer months as the Canadian winters were too severe while fishing in New England occurred in the winter months as the cod came to these waters for spawning. Boston, the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, grew into a massive port off the profit of this synergy and became the hub of all cod trade. In this budding city, a new upper class grew from the cod. (2)
While the cod had provided immense profitability for New Englanders, Nova Scotians, and Newfoundlanders, these fortunes were made at a cost to humanity. The salted cod from the Northwestern Atlantic regions were brought to West Africa, where the highest quality cod was bartered for slaves. Next, the slaves and the poorest quality pieces of cod, known as West India, were brought to the West Indies, where they were sold to massive sugar and tobacco plantations. The West India cure allowed the plantation owners to have more slaves as it was a cheap food source filled with protein. The ships would then return to Boston carrying rum, molasses, sugar, tobacco, and salt, which would be used to cure more cod. As this triangle trade allowed fishermen to gain even more profits, they started to specialize in fishing for cod to be used in the West India cure. This whole system collapsed in the 1840s when Britain abolished slavery in the West Indies, and consequently, since fishermen almost exclusively caught cod for the West India cure, the whole fishery suffered as no free man would eat the West India cure. (2)
The next step forward for the fishery did not come until the early 1900s when engine-powered ships were invented. This allowed the ships to more easily use the “bottom dragger nets”, which are more commonly known as trawls. Still, until World War II, most ships in the fishing fleets of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New England were still wind-powered schooners and it was not until 1963 when the last schooner, the Theresa E. Connor, was taken out of the fleet. Along with engine-power and trawls, the next step also involved the use of refrigeration on board, which was invented in 1925. This trio of refrigeration, engine-power, and trawls morphed together to create the factory fleets, which could catch fish and process them on board for weeks without returning to port. The development of these ships caused a commercial increase in cod catches worldwide. Unfortunately, this also corresponded with an increase in bycatch, which was usually thrown overboard dead, or dying. The factory ship also led to an increase in foreign vessels fishing in the waters off of Canada and Northeast America. (2)
In response to the influx of foreign Deep Water Fleets (DWFs), President Truman issued a proclamation stating that the United States had the right to control all resources on its continental shelf. This was later extended in the Magnuson Fisheries Conservation and Management Act of 1976, which created the 200 mile exclusive economic zone off the coast of the U.S. After this, international code set forth by the UN established similar EEZs off the coast of all nations. For the first time in history, Canadian and American fleets could singly fish the cod rich waters off their coasts. (2)
As time passed, catches began to skyrocket due to the modernized fleets and their efficiency, not because the cod populations were increasing. The number of these vessels also increased as the United States government was giving out loans with low interest to fishermen to buy new ships. It was around the late 1980s when the cod started to periodically disappear from the waters off of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. However, since this had happened previously, fishermen disregarded these signs of stress as mere changes in migratory patterns for some of the season. (2)
On July 2, 1992, John Crosbie, the Canadian Fisheries Minister, placed a moratorium, or a ban on fishing, on the northern stock of cod, causing 30,000 fishermen to go out of work (A video of the fishermen’s reaction can be seen lower in the page). Two years later, in January of 1994, the new minister, Brian Tobin, extended the moratorium indefinitely and all the Canadian Atlantic cod fisheries, except for one in southwestern Nova Scotia, were closed. The Atlantic Cod, once populous enough that it was said that you could walk across the Atlantic on their backs, were only at 1% of their historical biomass. The Canadian cod was now commercially extinct. (2)
While the Georges Bank and New England stocks were not as impacted as the Grand Banks, they too felt the decrease of the cod populations. In 1994, the National Marine Fisheries Services found that the Gloucester fishing fleet was two times larger than what the existing cod populations could sustain and that the cod stock off of Georges Bank was 40% of the biomass it had been in 1990. Consequently, each fishing vessel was restricted to 139 days at sea and were only supposed to fish 15% of the total stock. However, in 1996, 50% of the stock was culled, resulting in the restriction of only 88 days at sea. This change, filtered out the massive trawlers that used to be part of the fleet as they were too costly to maintain. While the cod populations have started to grow back recently, it is quite possible that they will never reach the peaks they once had achieved. (2)
After Cabot’s discovery, the British brought fleets over to Newfoundland to sustain the growing European desire for cod as 60% of all fish eaten in Europe in 1550 was the cod. The increasing need for cod resulted in further explorations of the continental shelf off of the New World. One of these explorations was conducted by Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602. The seas in which he sailed were so full of cod that they were said to be slowing his boat down. Gosnold named this area Cape Cod. Another notable exploration was in 1614 when John Smith fished and charted the waters and shoreline of today’s Maine and Massachusetts. He came back to England with 47,000 cod. (2)
Having been inspired by Smith’s immense catch, hundreds of ships followed him to the New World. One of these ships contained the Pilgrims, who actually had come to the New World in search of religious freedom and not the bounty found in cod fishing. Nevertheless, they eventually founded the fishing stations at Salem, Dorchester, Marblehead, and Penobscot Bay. By 1640, the newly-named Massachusetts Bay Colony harvested and sold 300,000 cod. (2)
Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and New England combined fishing efforts for maximum profit. Fishing in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland was done in the summer months as the Canadian winters were too severe while fishing in New England occurred in the winter months as the cod came to these waters for spawning. Boston, the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, grew into a massive port off the profit of this synergy and became the hub of all cod trade. In this budding city, a new upper class grew from the cod. (2)
While the cod had provided immense profitability for New Englanders, Nova Scotians, and Newfoundlanders, these fortunes were made at a cost to humanity. The salted cod from the Northwestern Atlantic regions were brought to West Africa, where the highest quality cod was bartered for slaves. Next, the slaves and the poorest quality pieces of cod, known as West India, were brought to the West Indies, where they were sold to massive sugar and tobacco plantations. The West India cure allowed the plantation owners to have more slaves as it was a cheap food source filled with protein. The ships would then return to Boston carrying rum, molasses, sugar, tobacco, and salt, which would be used to cure more cod. As this triangle trade allowed fishermen to gain even more profits, they started to specialize in fishing for cod to be used in the West India cure. This whole system collapsed in the 1840s when Britain abolished slavery in the West Indies, and consequently, since fishermen almost exclusively caught cod for the West India cure, the whole fishery suffered as no free man would eat the West India cure. (2)
The next step forward for the fishery did not come until the early 1900s when engine-powered ships were invented. This allowed the ships to more easily use the “bottom dragger nets”, which are more commonly known as trawls. Still, until World War II, most ships in the fishing fleets of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New England were still wind-powered schooners and it was not until 1963 when the last schooner, the Theresa E. Connor, was taken out of the fleet. Along with engine-power and trawls, the next step also involved the use of refrigeration on board, which was invented in 1925. This trio of refrigeration, engine-power, and trawls morphed together to create the factory fleets, which could catch fish and process them on board for weeks without returning to port. The development of these ships caused a commercial increase in cod catches worldwide. Unfortunately, this also corresponded with an increase in bycatch, which was usually thrown overboard dead, or dying. The factory ship also led to an increase in foreign vessels fishing in the waters off of Canada and Northeast America. (2)
In response to the influx of foreign Deep Water Fleets (DWFs), President Truman issued a proclamation stating that the United States had the right to control all resources on its continental shelf. This was later extended in the Magnuson Fisheries Conservation and Management Act of 1976, which created the 200 mile exclusive economic zone off the coast of the U.S. After this, international code set forth by the UN established similar EEZs off the coast of all nations. For the first time in history, Canadian and American fleets could singly fish the cod rich waters off their coasts. (2)
As time passed, catches began to skyrocket due to the modernized fleets and their efficiency, not because the cod populations were increasing. The number of these vessels also increased as the United States government was giving out loans with low interest to fishermen to buy new ships. It was around the late 1980s when the cod started to periodically disappear from the waters off of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. However, since this had happened previously, fishermen disregarded these signs of stress as mere changes in migratory patterns for some of the season. (2)
On July 2, 1992, John Crosbie, the Canadian Fisheries Minister, placed a moratorium, or a ban on fishing, on the northern stock of cod, causing 30,000 fishermen to go out of work (A video of the fishermen’s reaction can be seen lower in the page). Two years later, in January of 1994, the new minister, Brian Tobin, extended the moratorium indefinitely and all the Canadian Atlantic cod fisheries, except for one in southwestern Nova Scotia, were closed. The Atlantic Cod, once populous enough that it was said that you could walk across the Atlantic on their backs, were only at 1% of their historical biomass. The Canadian cod was now commercially extinct. (2)
While the Georges Bank and New England stocks were not as impacted as the Grand Banks, they too felt the decrease of the cod populations. In 1994, the National Marine Fisheries Services found that the Gloucester fishing fleet was two times larger than what the existing cod populations could sustain and that the cod stock off of Georges Bank was 40% of the biomass it had been in 1990. Consequently, each fishing vessel was restricted to 139 days at sea and were only supposed to fish 15% of the total stock. However, in 1996, 50% of the stock was culled, resulting in the restriction of only 88 days at sea. This change, filtered out the massive trawlers that used to be part of the fleet as they were too costly to maintain. While the cod populations have started to grow back recently, it is quite possible that they will never reach the peaks they once had achieved. (2)
Figure 4: The video above shows the reactions of Newfoundland fishermen to the 1992 moratorium.
