E-text prepared by Ronald Calvin Huber
while serving as Penobscot Bay Watch, Rockland, Maine
| Preface |
| Introduction |
| Acknowledgements |
| Gulf of Maine |
| Geographical and Historical Name |
| Description |
| Bay of Fundy |
| Inner Grounds |
| Outer Grounds |
| Georges Area |
| Offshore Banks |
| Tables of Catch, 1927 |
| Maps |
| Index to grounds |
Fishing Grounds of the Gulf of Maine by Walter H. Rich first appeared inthe U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Fisheries, Report of theUnited States Commissioner of Fisheries, for the fiscal year 1929.
When Captain Robert McLellan of Boothbay Harbor died in 1981, theemployees of the Maine Department of Marine Resources contributed moneyto be used to purchase books in his memory, for the Department'sFishermen's Library. Captain McLellan's family was asked what purchasesthey would recommend, and a top priority was to somehow reprint thiswork on the fishing grounds. This was a book that had been helpful toCaptain McLellan in his career, and one which his son, Captain RichardMcLellan, found still valid and useful.
Contributions from the employees of the Department of Marine Resourcespaid to get this project started; film to reproduce the pages of theoriginal text was donated by the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences;printing costs were paid by the Department.
It is the hope of the Department and its employees that the fishermen oftoday will benefit from the detailed information in this publication,and that they will remember Captain Robert McLellan, a man who knew howto use books to enhance his career as a fisherman, who knew how to sharehis knowledge with the scientific community, and who was widelyrespected by fishermen and scientists alike.
Paralleling the northeastern coast line of North America lies a longchain of fishing banks—a series of plateaus and ridges rising from theocean bed to make comparatively shallow soundings. From very early timesthese grounds have been known to and visited by the adventurers of thenations of western Europe—Northman, Breton, Basque, Portuguese,Spaniard, Frenchman, and Englishman. For centuries these fishing areashave played a large part in feeding the nations bordering upon theWestern Ocean, and the develo