One of the prevailing images of Newfoundland in Canada is that its economy has been dominated by fishing activities ever since it was discovered. Although the Norse had established a settlement [1] in Newfoundland for a short period at the beginning of the Eleventh Century [2], contact between Europe and the New World was soon lost. Iceland continued to offer stocks of cod that became important protein supplies for an increasing European population, and then, probably even before Cabot’s official discovery of Newfoundland in 1497 [3] it is likely that European fishermen had begun to exploit the immense stocks of cod upon and adjacent to the Grand Banks [4]. During the Sixteenth Century [5] this fishery attracted scores, then some hundreds, of ships from France, Spain, Portugal and England.
The cod was available in commercially-viable concentrations along the Newfoundland coast for only three or four months each summer. It was available on the Grand Banks, up to three hundred miles off the coast, all year, but severe weather reduced the harvest season there as well. Would a year-round settlement at Newfoundland provide a suitable base for the fisher folk, or would it make more sense to send fishing ships from Europe [6] just for the summer? This question of year-round habitation was complex and was struggled with for nearly two centuries. Some of the factors to consider were:
The outcome of weighing these factors was that by the late Seventeenth Century, despite close to twenty thousand people in Newfoundland waters each summer, less than three thousand stayed the winters. It was a migratory fishery, both for the English [7] (and some French) fishing along the shore [8] , and the French on the Grand Banks.
During the Eighteenth Century [9] conditions changed. Food grains were available as New York and Philadelphia merchants came to Newfoundland for fish to be used in a trade to the West Indies. A food crisis in Ireland sent labourers into the Newfoundland fishery, increasing numbers staying year-round [10] , establishing potato gardens (a food crop particularly suited to Newfoundland conditions) and families. Wars in the latter half of the century between England and France and England and the United States put the yearly trans-Atlantic migrations at risk and bolstered the year-round establishment. In-migration of West-country English and Southern Irish men, women and children in the last few decades of the Eighteenth and the early Nineteenth Centuries, and outlying sections of French sojourners, set the cultural geography of the island, much of which has endured to this day. For more on the traditional Newfoundland Salt Fishery, be sure to explore the Internet [11].
Until just a few decades ago, it was an almost universal belief that the cod stocks of Newfoundland were inexhaustible. We know better today. However, even in the Eighteenth Century there were indications that the stocks could be over-fished. A close examination of reported yields in defined local regions shows periodic build-ups of fishing power in response to runs of good yields per fishing unit, then a falling off of these yields, then a collapse. A period of lower fishing intensity (sometimes an economic response to the lower yields, sometimes due to disruption by war) allowed the cycle to begin again.
During the Nineteenth Century the needs of an increasing population were met by exploiting off-season resources, such as a winter Banks fishery from the southeastern parts of the island, and an early Spring seal fishery to the northeast. A carefully-planned seasonal round of activities supported a mature and relatively secure community with a rich and distinctive regional culture [12], an active though hard working live [13] with limited but essential food production [14] facilities and an active artistic life [15].
The last thirty or forty years has seen the Newfoundland fish stocks subjected to enormous and unselective pressures from an international fishery. Large trawlers gathered by factory (processing)ships, dragged the bottom with gigantic nets virtually year-round, taking all the marine life the nets would hold. Decreasing sizes of fish and of overall yields became evident. As the best species began to disappear [16], attention was directed to poorer ones. Eventually, in 1992, the Canadian government legislated a closing-down of this five-century-old cod fishery. Stock recovery has been agonizingly slow but it has allowed other species to flourish [17]. The Atlantic Fishery (including that of the Maritime Provinces) has supplied a very small portion of the Gross National Product, but it is a central part of the culture [18], particularly in Newfoundland, and its loss has been strongly felt.
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