Until the 1990s Georges Bank, off the coasts of New England and Nova Scotia, was one of the world's most valuable fisheries. A bank is a plateau found under the surface of shallow ocean water. Georges Bank is the southernmost and the most productive of the banks that form the continental shelf. A majority of the $800 million northeastern fishery industry comes from Georges Bank. The oval shaped bank is 149 mi long and 74.5 mi wide (240 km by 120 km). Georges Bank covers an area larger than the state of Massachusetts. The ocean bottom of Georges Bank formed ideal habitat for favorable quantities of groundfish, demersal finfishes, fish which feed off or near the ocean's floor mdash; cod, Gadidae, clam, Pelecypoda, haddock, Melanogrammus aeglefinus, hake, Merlucciidae, herring, Clupea harengus, lobster, Homarus, pollock, Pollachaius, flounder, and scallops, Pectinidae. But by...