Effects of Technology on the Industry

As the Industrial Revolution marched forward into the 20th century, so too did the technology to better harvest the sea. Fishermen all along the Maine coast viewed the new harvesting technology for what it was, a threat to their way of life. In an article about modern historians’ quest for old New England sea captains’ log books, Colin Woodard provides an example of the sentiments of fishermen at the time on the new technologies,

“… Fishermen’s warnings about the destructive power of new technology went unheeded. In the 1850s, Swampscott, Mass., hand-line fishermen begged state legislators to outlaw new long lines that used hundreds of hooks rather than one or two. They warned that otherwise cod and haddock would become as “scarce as salmon”’ (Woodard).

Unfortunately, the warnings of fishermen fell on deaf ears. After the Second World War, the commercial fishing industry took off. Trawlers, long-lines, gill-nets; they were all used for decades, unchecked and unbound by any real form of regulations. As a result, fish populations suffered. “The abundance of large ocean fish–bottom-dwelling groundfish like cod and open-ocean swimmers like tunas, swordfish, marlins, and sharks–has plummeted by 90 percent since industrialized fishing got going after World War II” (Hayden). As technology allowed for greater yields, so too did it diminish the overall populations of the fish being harvested. So much so, in fact, that it can be seen that the use of traditional methods in the 1800’s actually produced a greater net yield than their modern counterparts,

“Likewise, in 1861, fishermen from a handful of Maine fishing hamlets using small sailboats and baited hand lines were able to catch more cod than were caught in the entire Gulf of Maine between 1996 and 1999 by the entire US fleet, with their powerful engines, enormous bottom trawling nets, high-tech fish finders, and satellite navigation systems” (Woodard).

Gone are the days of bountiful seas. In addition to diminished numbers, diminished size is also a reality. The fabled “Great Cod” of yesteryear are all but gone. Its modern ancestors look like scrawny weaklings by comparison. In addition to overfishing, another significant reason that this has happened is simply survival of the fittest. “Extreme fishing pressure can also force magnificent fish to evolve into something considerably less grand” (Hayden). The trawls and gill nets that have been used in the modern era have brought about this change. Bigger fish cannot escape a net’s grasp, but smaller ones can slip through the holes. This leaves only these smaller fish to reproduce and repopulate the stock, resulting in smaller offspring generationally.

Besides harvesting techniques, new forms of preservation have also effected the industry in immense ways. For millennia, the only way that humans could truly preserve food would be to either dry or salt it. In the 1800’s the ice market took off. It was discovered

Ice Block

that ice, housed in insulated refrigeration containers, could preserve food for much longer periods of time, and in a fresher state than other methods. In modern times, fishing boats carry

storerooms of ice that the fishermen will place the harvested fish in immediately after they’re caught. Fish from the Gulf of Maine can now be shipped as far as China without spoilage or having to salt or dry it. This new preservation method has increased demand for fish immensely over the past century. They can now be harvested and preserved, ready to eat, for months on end. This fact of greater demand plus more efficient harvesting techniques means that fish stocks can be depleted very quickly and very thoroughly.

 

Sources:

“MaineImages and Videos.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., n.d. Web. 06 July 2017.

Woodard, Colin. “Sea Captains’ Logbooks Reveal Secrets of New England’s Fishing Culture.” Christian Science Monitor, 01 Feb, 2008, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Hayden, Thomas. “Fished Out.” U.S.News & World Report, Jun, 2003, pp. 38-45, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.