Figure 1.-- These boys in Maine are seafood cutters are waiting for work in 1911. Notice the knives. The boys seem to have to furnish their own knives. This work was seen as suitable for boys and not girls. This may seem dangerous, but work on the fishing boats at sea was even more dangerous. The fishing industry has been called the most dangerous industry in America. This is presumably a Lewis Hine photograph. He specialized in child labor photography helping to bring about important child labor protective laws.

Fishing was an early industry in America and whaling began to develop as a major industry in the late-18th century. Fishing has been referred to as America's first industry. In fact, European fishermen came to America, to fish cod on the Grand Banks before Columbus' voyages when there no European settlement any where in the Americas. At the time America's existence except for the fishermen was basically unknown. The American fishing industry began during earliest colonial times in New England, still based primarily on cod. New England has, for over 400 years, been identified both economically and culturally with groundfishing, first on cod and than other groundfish as well. A mixture of groundfish, bottom-dwelling species) like cod, haddock, redfish and flounders were the groundfish resource. Great fleets of sail vessels sailed from Gloucester and Boston to what is the eastern-most reaches of North America -- the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. The catch of cod was salted so it could be preserved and sold. There were fleets of 400 schooners in each of these ports, and a multitude of shore-side businesses developed to support the fishing industry. This came in include including salt mining and a boat building industry. The industry at first based on fishing vessels soon built merchant vessels. As a result, at the time of he Revolution, America already had one of the world's largest merchant fleets. No other country than Bitain had a significantly larger merchant fleet. Shipyards on the Essex River north of Boston became some of the busiest and best known in the world. The New England shipyards had the advantage of the still largely untouched North American forrests. Ice harvesting in fresh-water ponds became important with the coming of the railroads. Another fishery also developed from New England--the whaling industry, but because whales unlike groundfish were mobile, the whaling industry developed a worldwide reach--into the Pacific. Another important fishery was the Cheaspeake Bay and the railroads enabled oyster and crabs to be delivered throughout the country. But overharvesting have adverely affected the resource. Steam power replacing sailing put huge pressure on resources. Important fisheries developed in ghe Gulf of Mexixo. Today the country's most important fishery is based in Alaska. And new technologies called aquaculture (fish farming) have been developed to supplement declining wild fisheries.

Created: 4:16 AM 3/17/2019
Last updated: 10:54 PM 3/17/2019