CTFishTalk.com: Climate Change-Case History for CT-Halibut Fleet 1848-1881 - - Connecticut Saltwater Reports ( CT Saltwater Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

BlueChip

continued #54 - Climate Change-Case History for CT Halibut Fleet- Continued
The New London vessels according to Mr. Wonson began catching Halibut for the New York market on George’s (Bank) somewhere between 1840 and 1845. The New London Fishermen cared nothing for cod and the Wonson’s often exchanged with them a few Halibut for a boat – load of cod. The New London fleet was first composed entirely of sloops. Mr. Wonson remembers to have counted forty at one time in 1845 – or 1846. In 1846 several Schooners made their appearance. In 1845 and until 1850 Mr. Wonson fished chiefly on the northwest part of the Bank (George’s) in about 28 fathoms through sometimes in 15 or 16 fathoms. One fare of fish was caught inside of the breakers on the shoals for bait the early halibut fishermen used chiefly herring caught on the banks (George’s)”.

But that was not the conditions of the 1890s to 1900 – then fishers had to go into deeper cooler waters to fill holds and the Davis Straight fishery created much excitement in 1884. Danish vessels were found to catch Halibut around Greenland and Ireland but would not reveal locations (no surprise here) pg 94. But by 1884 three Gloucester vessels found Halibut in the Davis straight on the western side of Greenland. “The depth of water on the banks is from 15 to 90 fathoms…. and air and water temperatures cold – surface sea temperatures between 38 and 43 degrees (F).” The temperature was thus very favorable for work, through perhaps a little chilling in foggy weather (air temp ranged from 36 to 52°F). But nevertheless much better than the sweltering heat of summer in our own latitude” pg 96.

“In 1885 US Halibut fishing vessels landed 14.6 million pounds of halibut, but by 1912 that had dropped to only 500,000 lbs in the 1920 after some colder winter halibut catches increased to over 2 million pounds, and again after the cooler 1960s rose to about 1 million pounds (1969) before reaching its lowest point in 1998. George Goode, US Fish Commission, wrote extensively about halibut writing in the American Naturalist, Vol 19 (10) pages 953-969 in October 1885. A brief biography of the halibut which apparently caught his attention. The declining catches even then had concerned him and closed his article (it is on the Internet JSTOR posted July 2006) with an eerie prediction—a complete failure of the fishery – he felt, from overfishing.

In 1885, the halibut fleet of Gloucester is reduced to one-fourth of its former size, and the total catch is estimated at from three to five million pounds.

It is evident that within a few years, the American off-shore halibut grounds will be so depleted that the fresh-halibut fishery on our coasts will be abandoned. We shall then derive our chief supply from the waters of Greenland and Iceland, where several vessels go each year to bring back cargoes of salt “flitches.” Halibut will come into our markets only in a smoked conditions, and the species will be as unfamiliar in our fish-markets as it is in those of the old world. The life-history of the species must be recorded now, for it can never be made so completely hereafter. This is the writer’s excuse for having presented in this place so full a biography of the halibut.”

The Davis Straight Halibut fishery between Greenland and Baffin Island lasted two decades. And into the 1890s the warming would continue peaking in the Northern Maritimes in the 1910 to 1915 period. In 1913 the Canadian Commissioner of Conservation reported that on August 13, 1909 Malpeque sea water temperatures had reached 69° F and Departure Bay July 28, 1911 a record of 75° F. By this time the colder water preferring Halibut had moved far to the north among the ice fields of a new opening Northwest Passage and beyond the range of even the largest Halibut vessels. By the 1950s a cooler climate prevailed and Halibut made a brief return to the Gulf of Maine. In August 2008 a century later, the Northwest Passage had reopened.