Ground Fishing In Colonial America

Ground fishing or as it's called today, bottom fishing was the first major industry of Colonial times. Ground fishing is the catching of fish that is close to the bottom of the sea which was the first colonial industry in America. I chose this topic because I believe the abundant fish population in and around Plymouth, Cape Cod and Northwest regions off shore waters in the immediate area in Massachusetts was a primary reason for the travelers to settle there. Thus, the settlers would have sought a better area for sustenance. The fishing industry today in that area, Boston, the Cape and New Bedford are all the after effects of what the Colonial settlers started many years ago. How bottom fishing was started, the types of fishing used than and

still used today and most importantly, the species of fish that were in the local waters during the colonial times.

Wampanoag
In 1620 the pilgrims were the first settlers to settle in Massachusetts. They quickly developed a friendship with the Wampanoag. There villages covered the territory along the east coast of what is now Cape Cod. In the 1600s everyone ate according to the seasons. The Wampanoag were considered seasonal people who lived in valleys and forests in winter. During fall and summer they would move close to the ocean, rivers and ponds (1). They fishes in fresh ponds and rivers for herring, trout, catfish, and perch. In saltwater they fished for bass, mackerel and cod.

Plymouth
In 1620 the Mayflower carried 150 settlers known as Pilgrims to England which landed north on Cape Cod. When the Pilgrims landed, European fishing vessels had off of New England. When they arrived only a small population of Native people villages was still present. The Native American population had declined due to diseases such as smallpox and malaria. Everything about the Native Americans where different from what the Pilgrims was familiar with especially pertaining to their main source of living and their food diet. The Pilgrims had to adapt to the Plymouth daily living. They did not know how to fish because they was accustomed to eating bread and deer. Many of the Wampanoag was trained fisherman and had natural skills for hunting. The Pilgrims eventually learned how to fish just as good as the Native people. Shortly after there was a decline in fish due to over hunting and food shortage became a problem.

Northwest Indians

Fish was a major to the Northwest native people.

They harvested a variety of different species of fish. Salmon was their primary source of food and was very important to many of the tribes. Just as the Wampanoag tribe if they could have harvested salmon in late spring to fall it provided them with a long term of survival in winter. They preserved the salmon by letting it sun dry and smoked it. This tribe of Indians used a variety of fishing methods such as dip nets, spears and gill nets (2). The Native American tribes practiced many survival skills and was deeply connected with the land around them. Salmon was an abundant of source of protein in the Indians diet. They practiced a form of management in the form of rules and rituals that limited the catch they can do a day so they was able to have fish all year round. At the time of the first contact with Europeans in the late 1700 and early 1800 Indians established fisheries using nets and

traps.

Historians such as Joseph Taylor believed that the Indians developed a respect for salmon because it sustained their lives and since they had such a respect for the fish this shaped their actions that moderated harvest and consumption. In 1840s Indians was increasing fishing and practicing traditional fishing.

1920-1930s
During the 1920 through the 1930s the development of fish fillet and methods of freezing and storing frozen fish meant that Americans could now get products and move them. This was a period called the fresh fish industry and the shift of targeted species. The development of cold storages helped market and distribute the use of fresh fish in far areas from fishing ports. Many problems were faced by industry in the first decade of the new century. There have been increasing methods for fishing. They was faced with low stock of ground fish species and a fast shirking industry. Over the past century there was a collapse of numerous of species. Competition between fleet sectors, employing gears, and an inability to develop and contain an international partnership harmed the industry (3). Many fish that feed the American people was haddock, ocean perch, and yellowtail flounder.

The introduction of steam powered traveler from England was the change on how ground fish was being caught.

Catches of salt cod helped schooners and boat building industry made shipyards the busiest in the world. Ground fishing were caught with bait fished right from the dories and schooners (4). In 1930 early signs of stress due to the popularity of haddock fish. Scientist were asked to study the causes of the decline of fish. Harvard University had started a scientific investigation which resulted in a suggestion of increasing the sizes of mesh when catching fish. But that didn’t help much because there was such a decline in fish that congress had passed The Magnuson Act in 1976 by trying to take control of the economic zone and regulating a system of a domestic industry. They also decided to develop a program to help failing fishing by offering job retraining, vessel buyouts for fishing families that solely relied on

fishing.

Conclusion

As my sources of reference, I chosen to use, ' Brief history of the ground fishing industry of New England', found online. Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World' and 'Cape Cod History' for Cape Cod.com. I know that there are more choices but I decided to touch base on how fish was the main source of all regions and not just in for one particular nation of people. But the Cod book will be very informative to my topic.

I wanted to gather information and to gain insight on why the fishing industry is in such decline today as opposed to when the industry first began. I know the Cod fish are few and far between. Not like when Cape Cod was named after this abundant species. I wanted my readers to understand, why were the species killed off? I also wanted to gain knowledge of what else the fish were used for. How the fish were salted and stored for future consumption. All of this is important to know. There was no electricity for refrigeration. Storage and safekeeping were important issues at the time. Learning and researching how the industry grew to what it once was before the decline of fish stocks in the Plymouth/Cape Cod region and the Northwest region is very informative to know. This research shows that the decline in fish affected all regions and not just one.