To all these is added the long shelving area extending from the coast out to the edge of the continental plateau and stretching from the South Shoal off Nantucket to New York, making in all, from the eastern part of the Grand Bank to New York Bay, a distance of about 2,000 miles, an almost continuous extent of most productive fishing ground.

Within the bowl that is the Gulf of Maine, the outer margin of which is made by the shoaling of the water over the Seal Island Grounds, Browns Bank, and Georges Bank, this chain is further extended by another series of smaller grounds, as Grand Manan Bank, the German Bank, Jeffreys Bank, Cashes Bank, Platts Bank, Jeffreys Ledge, Fippenies Bank, Stellwagen or Middle Bank; and again, lying inside these, this fishing area is increased by a very large number of smaller grounds and fishing spots located within a very short distance of the mainland.

All these banks are breeding places of the most valued of our food fishes—­the cod, haddock, cusk, hake, pollock, and halibut—­and each in its proper season furnishes fishing ground where are taken many other important species of migratory and pelagic food fishes as well as those named here.  It is probable that no other fishing area equaling this in size or in productivity exists anywhere else in the world, and the figures of the total catch taken from it must show an enormous poundage and a most imposing sum representing the value of its fishery.

With the most distant of these grounds we shall not deal here, leaving them for later consideration when noting certain of the fishery operations most characteristic of them.  Thus, we may treat of those well-defined areas that lie within or are adjacent to the Gulf of Maine, such as the Bay of Fundy, the Inner Grounds (those close to the mainland), the Outer Grounds (those within the gulf), the Georges area, Seal Island Grounds, and Browns Bank, these forming the outer margin of the gulf; and also make mention of certain others of those nearer offshore banks that are most closely connected with the market fishery of the three principal fishing ports within the Gulf of Maine.

[Footnote 1:  First published as Appendix III to the Report of the us Commissioner of Fisheries for 1929.  Bureau of Fisheries Doc# 1059.  Submitted for publication Jan 18,1929.]

[Footnote 2:  U.S.  Bureau of Fisheries Statistical Bulletin No. 703]

[Footnote 3:  U.S.  Bureau of Fisheries Document No. 1034]

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As to the charts, it has been the writer’s endeavor, by consulting a large number of fishing captains of long experience upon these grounds, to reduce the margin of inaccuracy as much as possible.  In case of conflict of their opinion, the greatest agreement as to the facts has been accepted.