The number of fishermen varies, but approximately one-fifth of the population now engage in catching and curing codfish. About 1,000 schooners are used, the numbers having fallen from over 1,5oo. The bankers use long lines or trawls with many hun dreds of hooks on each. The "Shore" and Labrador men use mostly submerged nets, called traps, which cost about four hun dred dollars apiece. They also use hand lines and flaxen gill nets set on the bottom, and ordinary twine mesh nets, called "cod nets." Squid follow the caplin and on these also the cod feed greedily; they make excellent bait and also are good eating.
In spite of the decline of late years in the number of men and boats employed in the Colony's fisheries, the actual statistics are enlightening: Actual quantity of Codfish Value in caught in qtl. dollars 1885 1,284,719 ..... 4,061,600 1905 1,196,814 ..... 5,108,614 1927 1,589,841 . . . . . . The advent of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1927 into the codfish trade of Newfoundland is a very happy augury for her.
Exports of cod oil unrefined, 1921, value . . . Exports of cod oil unrefined, 1928, value . . . The new knowledge of the enormous value to the human body of refined cod liver oil, has advanced its price all the world over, exactly as it has that of calf's liver. The Newfoundland cod liver oil has been repeatedly stated by the chemical biological experts of the United States to be the richest in vitamines in the world.
In 1921, 45,956 gallons were exported, valued at . . $ 79,982 In 1926, 169,645 gallons were exported, valued at . The lobster fishery has been necessarily closed down, owing to the great depletion of that esculent crustacean, and whereas the export value of cases in 1921 was $304,954, in 1927 it was nothing at all. In the 'eighties, a fine fish and lobster culture laboratory, and fish protection centre, were established at Dildo, in Trinity Bay, under a Norwegian scientific expert. This introduced laws protecting lobsters, and gave out simple floating hatcheries for saving the spawn, and replenishing the stock. But political op position closed this soon after.
The salmon fishery has at last begun to come to itself. The put ting up of salmon in salt or brine never made an article of food that was much appreciated in the market, except in limited quanti ties that could be washed out, smoked, and sold chiefly for hors d'oeuvres. In 1926, however, largely due to the enterprise of the
Hudson's Bay Company, fresh salmon was satisfactorily put on the London market, in such excellent condition that a company of expert tasters gathered in London for a sample testing at the greatest fish restaurant in the world, were unable to distinguish it from fish just taken from the rivers. This industry is just be ginning, and so far the capacity of the Newfoundland salmon fishery has only been touched. With its long coast line, and its innumerable rivers, there is no reason why, if the breeding rivers are themselves adequately protected, the fresh salmon trade of Newfoundland should not compete even with British Columbia in value, for the coast is so close to Montreal, New York, and Lon don, as to throw their large trade almost wholly into her hands. New methods of collecting, catching and preserving, are all the while improving, and there are no salmon in the sea like the crisp fat fish of the Labrador current, all of which are caught in salt water in gill nets, before they enter the rivers, where they would be knocked about, and where they do not feed. In 1920, pickled salmon fetched $85,563. In 1926, it fetched $130,825, while fresh salmon fetched in 1926, $144,896.
The seal fishery varies in value, but already shows that these mammals, which have only one young per year, are unable to stand against the modern inventions used to destroy them when they are helpless at the time of motherhood. The mothers bring forth their young at the end of February or early part of March on the level floe ice, called "whelping ice," that comes south along the east and west coasts of the Colony. They are there attacked by large ice-protected steamers, with wireless communications with the land, and with one another, with airplane service to direct the vessels where possible, and with modern repeating rifles and expanding bullets. There is, moreover, every year great loss from thousands of seals being killed, and their bodies lost upon the ice pans, as it is still legal to kill many more than can be taken straight to the safe storage of the ship, and they are left floating about on the loose ice, with flags indicating the owners, hoping that they may be picked up later. In 1927, only nine steamers, with crews amounting to 1,634 men, pursued this fishery, and brought home seals, as against 211,531 taken in 1926, a very large decrease on what used to be taken half a century ago. There are those who defend this fishery, especially the old sealing captains and steamer owners, but the man-in-the street sees nothing but obliteration for the herds, like those of the hood seals of East Greenland, if this annual slaughter continues. The poor settlers of the Labrador and North Newfoundland coast suffer severely from the diminution of these seals, for they depend on them for both meat and boot leather in the long winter, while the oil was to them an essential winter industry. For 1928 the total value to the Colony of all the fisheries was estimated at $36,000,000.