(google images)
As long as the Innu lived along the Gulf, fishing has been a prominent and necessary activity but when did the big money industry stuff start?
The Vikings 1000 years ago found Newfoundland; of this we have evidence but very little information. We can only assume that while they hung around the Grand Banks they gorged on the bountiful plentiful cod fish. Then the Basque fishermen came over in the 1500’s; they harvested whale blubber, turned it into oil and sent it back to Europe. They also fished for cod. Many other countries came and fished for cod; but still one could not say that the land had been settled. Now akin to the space race; Columbus, Cartier and Cabot; during the 16th C participated in the “find a way to the orient and Africa race” or explorations race. They did not find a route to the orient or Africa but they found fish and fur. Thus all was not lost; they decided to conquer North America and exploit the native’s for their knowledge and the land and sea for their resources. Thankfully technology was so limited back then because there was no limit to the greed of Europeans at that time and we may never have known what a cod fish or a beaver looks like; what would we have put on the nickel? Alright so over the next few centuries the French and English fought over Canada; people across Europe were immigrating to this new land and establishing new settlements. Fish and fur were the economic basis for the entire nation.
From the beginning of the 16th C until the 1950’s fish were caught in a sustainable fashion. This was due mostly because there was no technological means of over-fishing it was based on sheer man power. Fishing technologies evolved over centuries however nothing compared to the advancements during the Second World War. “South of Labrador and east of Newfoundland yielded about 250,000 tonnes for over 100 years,” before the 20th C (greenpeace.org). The peak catch was about 2 million tonnes in the 1960’s (dfo-mpo.gc.ca).
Here is a break down of different fishing methods and technologies:
Fishing Technology:
Handline and jigging are the traditional methods of fishing inshore. A weight and baited hook are attached to a line. Jigging uses lure hooks and is moved up and down; fish are attracted to the motion and are caught one at a time.
Jigging Machines uses the same concept as regular jigging but are operated not by hand but by electric or hydraulic motors.
Longlining is a “series of baited hooks spread along the ocean floor” on a longline. When it was first introduced the fish were retrieved manually but it was later mechanized to automatically haul, bait and shoot. This method allows fishermen to compete on a higher level but still be selective and retain good quality fish.
Hook and line fishing was the main means of extraction from the 15thC to the 19th C and ensured premium fish. In 1865 William H Whiteley from St Paul’s River invented the cod trap and revolutionized the groundfish industry until the 1950’s.
The Bultow was introduced by the French in the 1840’s and is a form of trawler. The Bultow had a hook and line concept but was much more efficient as it had hundreds of metres of line and hundreds of hooks.
Gillnetting is made of monofilament netting and are either sent to the bottom of the sea by weights or are left adrift. The fish try to swim through the netting and get caught by their gills.
Purse Seining surrounds the fish in a web with floats at the top and weights on the bottom to keep it vertical; there is a wire rope that goes through rings on the bottom. “When a school of fish is detected, one end of the seine is taken by a small boat or ‘skiff’. The vessel and skiff then encircle the fish with the net. After receiving the end of the line from the skiff, the vessel begins to winch in the wire cable closing the bottom of the seine and forming a bag-like net around the fish. The other lines are now also winched in, reducing the space inside the net which is then brought alongside the vessel. “The fish are dipped out and put in penned-off sections, boxes, or in the hold of the vessel” (cdli.ca).
Purse Seine (google images)
Otter Trawl is a cone shaped net that allows for only small fish to get through and is towed along the bottom of the ocean with bobbins on the bottom which roll along the ocean floor.
Atlantic Side Trawling is not widely used anymore since most fishermen have abandoned them for more modern technology. Basically the trawl is attached to gallows on the side of the boat.
Stern Trawls make up the majority of the domestic offshore fleets. The trawl is hauled up onto a large ramp that is at the stern on the boat. These trawlers can be operated in bad weather and can fish as deep as 250 fathoms 300 nautical miles off the coast.
Modern draggers are large boats, usually 120-160 ft long, with a capacity of up to about 300,000 lb of fish.
Dragger or Trawler (google images)
Factory Freezers
After World War Two along came the Factory Freezer Fleets (henceforth known as FFF’s) from England, France, Spain, Portugal, Soviet Union, Germany, Cuba, and parts of Asia to scoop up whatever was in the ocean. The first factory freezer to be launched was in 1954 called the Fairtry from Scotland. Factory Freezers are massive ships that are similar in design to distant water whaling ships. They have massive nets set from the stern which dragged up anything along the ocean floor, they were equipped with the technology to process and freeze what ever was caught. They were able to stay out in almost any weather 24 hours a day for months at a time without having to unload in port. The traditional distant water schooner and dory fishery that was the norm off the coast of Nfld/Lab and QC had to go ashore to unload, to avoid nasty weather and to sleep, ultimately catching less fish throughout the course of the fishing season and not being able to compete with international corporations.
The Fairtry (google images)
There are ten different stocks of cod fish off the east coast, all of these stocks were severely over fished from the 1950’s to the 1970’s. This time period was when the FFF’s were introduced to Canada, when the government heavily subsidized bigger boats and technology for the domestic industry and when finally in 1977 the Canadian government told the FFF’s to push back 200 nautical miles from our coast. The FFF’s fished in more distant waters however as the cod fish is a migratory species, they could be found in those far off waters at one time of the year and then make their way closer inshore at other times of the year so those FFF’s could still capture cod fish on the move. If you look at the life cycle of a cod fish you begin to see how hard their survival is and how unlikely it is for these fish to survive until maturation. Basically a female cod lays millions of eggs at a time; these eggs then float around until they begin to develop. The tom cod’s as they are called at a young stage then have to migrate around finding food and trying not to get caught by predators, nets, die from too cold or too warm conditions. It takes a few years before they fully reach maturation. Basically very few of the millions of eggs laid actually reach adulthood and fewer still reach full maturation. A cod fish can live to be 25 years old. “Scientists believe that a good reserve of older, more fertile fish are essential to kick-start recruitment when conditions are better again. Unfortunately, current fishing practices which naturally tend to fish down the age structure, removing older fish, mean that the stock loses the big spawners and so recovers more slowly after a period of poor conditions” (www.ices.dk).
Gadus Morua/Cod Fish (google images)
The Canadian calamity also demonstrates that we now have the technological capability to find and annihilate every commercial fish stock, in any ocean and sea, and do irreparable damage to entire ecosystems in the process. Newfoundland and the Northern Cod fishery might still be thriving today if Canada had taken a precautionary approach to the development of its Atlantic fisheries back in the late '70s, instead of the permissive approach which doomed the fishery to collapse. (greenpeace.org)
The purpose of this list is to give you an idea of how the cod moratorium happened through technology, but it was not technology alone that destroyed the fish stocks on the Atlantic coast. Politics played a central role; politics of course tried to sweep under the rug, force progress and cover up the disastrous consequences by trying to defy nature and ignoring the fishermen and the scientists. Scientist they hired to study and report on the condition of the fishery. Through my research I discovered an article about the history of government fisheries management since the 1920’s which painted a picture of disorganization, lack of focus and general mismanagement. I don’t intend to completely blame the government because that would be too easy but from the extensive amount of research I’ve done taken from various sources its hard not to place them in a dark light.
In my next post I will discuss all of the issues surrounding the collapse of the Atlantic groundfish stocks in terms of politics, environment, etc. I will also attempt to paint a picture of the effects this had on not only the atlantic region’s economy but also of Canada. Any information/opinion/feelings…you may have on this would be very welcome and appreciated. You can comment on this blog or email me at chelsieev@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!
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