The Fishing Industry in Gloucester
Gloucester Massachusetts is known for its fishing industry. Over 1200 people’s jobs in Gloucester lay in the fishing industry. The fishing industry first derived when people from Europe came over looking for a better life. Gloucester is America’s oldest seaport, and now it is fighting to survive. Now with new rules, and diseases in the sea, the fishing industry will never be what it was decades ago.
One of the earliest settlements, Gloucester, Massachusetts, is famous for being America's oldest seaport and the cradle of the country's fishing industry. It was in 1606 when the French explorer, Samuel de Champlain sailed into what is now Gloucester Harbor and loved the beauty of the land, and of course, the many fish that laid in the water. Later, English Captain John Smith, following Champlain's earlier voyages, reached Gloucester. When he arrived here he also fell in love with the land but most of all the cod. He then went back to England and told people of the good news. People started arriving right away.( A History of the Federal Biological Fishing Industry)
In the early 1900s people from Italy started to arrive on ship. They first arrived in Detroit, Michigan and later immigrated to Gloucester, to fish like they did back in the old country. Children, as young as ten years old went fishing to make a living for their family. When they first came the fishing industry was booming. There was no limit to how long you could fish or how much you could catch. Many men went fishing for weeks at a time. When Italian fishermen came upon the Atlantic off what is now Cape Cod, the waters churned with schools of fish. When they came nearly 800 of them in Boston and Gloucester combined became fishermen. In New England, cod was king. Enriched by a West Indies trade of fish for molasses, boat owners were referred to as the "codfish aristocracy. Sadly in the late 1990s the fishing industry went downhill and changed for the worst. (.)
In the late 1990s fishermen were getting stressed and many of them turned in their boats. This is because the government made new rules and regulations for the fishing industry. These rules are supposed to help endangered fish, although some are not helping at all. The government allows small boat fishermen to catch only 500 pounds of cod per day and requires them to toss any extra overboard before they reach shore.
The characteristics that came to shape the life in New England were the rocky, barren soil, the extreme climate and the rich waters. Although there was farming in New England , colonists looked to other means of survival. They looked to the rich waters for fishing and trade. The coastline of New England was very fertile with sealife. So, fishing became a way of commerce and trade providing a steady economy to New England. Because of the rocky soil and extreme climate, the colonists were forced to plant many different crops on a small pa...
Over the years, as the world has evolved, fishing methods were improved as well, and, especially from the 20th century, several changes had forced the way the fishery was done in North Atlantic. As world population was increasing quickly, the cod demand has grown tremendously. New technologies were introduced and thus catch rates of northern cod began to exceed the hazardous limits of the stock’s ability to rebuild. This fact summed with another that will be shown below led to the cod collapse in the Atlantic Canada by the 90’s.
The stories of each fish flow together as each story shows how humans have pushed to gain more control over the ocean and the delicious animals that swim in it’s depths. Greenberg starts in the free-flowing rivers where salmon are commonly found. It is there that early humans of the Northern Hemisphere most likely began their infatuation with fish. Greenberg puts it as, “It(salmon) is representative of the first wave of human exploitation..” (170) Once Europeans learned to fish, they had the ability to fish in shallow ocean water which is where sea bass are usually found. Later, fishermen s...
When settlers first came to America, lobster was considered a poor man’s food. The lobsters were so abundant at that time that many people felt that they were competing with them for space on the shore. The settlers felt that the lobster had no nutritional value. At that time both Native Americans and settlers used the lobster as fertilizer for their fields and as bait to catch other fish. Lobster was so disdained that it was given to prisoners, indentured servants, and children. This was such a common practice that in Massachusetts many servants and prisoners had it put into their contract that they could not be fed lobster more than two times a week.
If someone is a native of Maryland, they know exactly what one is talking about when the Maryland Blue Crab is brought up into a discussion. In 1989, the Maryland Blue Crab, scientifically known as the Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, was designated the State Crustacean (Blue Crab, Maryland State Crustacean). This crab is not only a key component on the ecological system of the Chesapeake Bay, but also a key economical component of commercial fisheries; although not endangered, the issue of maintaining the population of the species is critical to the Chesapeake Bay and also its inhabitants.
The subsequent description of the cod’s historical significance served to relay the economical and cultural importance of this fish, or rather the instrumental value of the fish. The...
...rn as much as the Chesapeake agricultural business. The warm weather of the Chesapeake Bay created many wealthy opportunities for its citizens, contrasting with the colder climate of New England society.
My family fishes on a dock, but many people fish on a boat out on the water. Fishing can also vary with the type of bait used. My family uses live bait, but there are other types of baits and lures that fisherman use, such as worms or rubber lures. The bait used depends on the type of fish you’re fishing for and the type of water you’re fishing in. Rods also vary depending on the type of fish you are looking to catch, and the environment you are fishing in. My family uses carbon fiber fishing rods, but there are many different types such as fly rods, trolling rods and surf rods. Fishing is a great pastime and the many different variables help to make the activity
The Chesapeake Bay means ‘Great shellfish Bay’ in Algonquin. The bay was once plentiful with O...
People can catch fish and skin them and clean them off, fry them and then eat them. Then there is deer, which you have to have a license to hunt. People also have to have fishing licenses or a park ranger or gain warden will fine you $75 and $20 more if you are caught with more fish that you are suppose to have.(Penalties for Fishing without a License,1). There are 3 types of fishing limits and restrictions, and they are catch limits, possession limits, and size restrictions.(Fishing limits and size retrictions,1). Catch limits means that you can only catch a certain amount of fish in one day. When you catch your limit, then you better not keep anymore or you will get fined. Possession limits means to target the fishing mortality rate. Then there is size restrictions of a fish, which is the size the fish has to be before you keep it. A fish has to be exactly 13 inches. If your fish is bigger or smaller than 13 inches then people will get fined.
The majority of the population living in this distinct place, who settled on today’s Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, lived off of the Puritan authoritative laws. New people were always arriving at the ports of these peculiar settlement areas because of their surplus of natural resources (plants, fish, etc...
During the late 16th and into the 17th century, European countries expeditiously colonized the recently discovered Americas. In particular, England sent out many groups to the east coast of North America to two main regions. From the beginning, both the Chesapeake and New England region had distinct identities. The differences between the two colonies were spurred from a single, crucial factor: the initial reason the colonists came to the New World. The varied motives played a key role in how the societies developed, affecting each colony in every way: economically, socially and politically.
Generation after generation gathered food off the land, people are continuing to practice this in our modern world today. Societies expressly continue to gather their own food as it provides an inexpensive, delightful tasting meal. One of the techniques of our historical past that is still in use today, that has been used for generation after generation is “netting” fish. Netting is a classic technique that has not faced as many revisions to its practice. It persists from one generation to the next due to the fact, that many do not understand it to be harmful to the environment; others may enjoy the idea of letting commercial fisheries catch large numbers of fish as it continues to keep some of Americans favorite meals low cost. Devastating fall out from neglectful thinking about netting will occur in the future if preservative action toward this way of life is not taken. Minimizing the use of nets in waterways will ensure salmon and other fish survive for many more generations to come, allowing this plentiful food source given to us by Mother Nature to be exploited and enjoyed by our future kin. With food sources now readily available, fishing with nets should be reevaluated as follows; who is allowed to fish with nets, what are their purposes, and how will this effect tributary fishing populations.
While both the people of the New England region and of the Chesapeake region descended from the same English origin, by 1700 both regions had traveled in two diverse directions. Since both of these groups were beset with issues that were unique to their regions and due to their exposure to different circumstances, each was forced to rethink and reconstruct their societies. As a result, the differences in the motivation, geography, and government in the New England and Chesapeake regions caused great divergence in the development of each.
Native Americans and U.S. commercial fisheries started catching Atlantic salmon in the 1600s. The catches in Maine exceeded 90 metric tons in the late 1800s and 45 metric tons in the 1900s. However since 1948, U.S. commercial fisheries have remained closed. For recreational purposes, fishermen have angled Atlantic salmon since 1932. In the Dennys River in Maine,...