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BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION.
Fishery Notes from Gloucester Massachusetts. February 27, 1882
The net fishing is almost done for this winter. There are only three boats fishing with nets. Those that have nets are doing well, and those who have lost them in the storm will not get any more this winter, as the time is getting short for net fishing. The nets which the boats had in the first part of the winter are used up. Nets will not last more than three months when they are down all the time; if they were taken up every morning, as they are in Norway, they would last two winters. We have no news from the four missing vessels--schooner Edith M. Pew, Captain Corliss; schooner Paul Revere, Captain Bently (these two vessels were haddocking); schooner Bessie W. Somes, Captain Wright, one of the halibut catchers; schooner Charles Carroll, one of the vessels that went to George's. These four vessels are given up as lost; they had 51 men. I hope that is all. The halibut catchers have done poorly. The last three vessels that came in did very well; they got 40,000 pounds each. The George's vessels bring in small fares. The fish so far on George's are very large--the largest that have been caught for eight years. There are no school fish yet. Herring are abundant--five loads are in the harbor, selling at 75 cents a hundred. All the Newfoundland vessels are home; they all brought full loads. The three fish** mentioned were caught in a cod gillnet in Ipswich Bay. They were busters--three female fish with no spawn in them. I have not much news to write. The fishing business looks well for Gloucester the coming year. Very few fish or mackerel in the market. GLOUCESTER, MASS., February 27, 1882 **Copy of extract (from newspaper) accompanying Captain Martin's letter. " Three mammoth codfish were landed at Rockport last week by schooner Alabama., weighing respectively 97, 93, and 70 pounds." ______________________________________________ END
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