The Gulf of Maine is an enormous geographical area, extending from Nova Scotia on the north to Cape Cod on the south. The combination of varied habitat and the nutrients furnished by dozens of great rivers and hundreds of smaller ones made it historically one of the richest biological regions on earth. It was once the home of incredible numbers of cod, haddock, hake, halibut and other bottom-dwelling “groundfish,” as well as herring, pollock and other resident species, and its rich forage base also attracted vast schools of migratory fish including mackerel, striped bass, bluefish, swordfish, bluefin tuna and many species of marine mammals, including seals, porpoises and whales.
Fishing ports grew up in Halifax and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, St. John, New Brunswick, Portland, Portsmouth, N.H., and Gloucester and Boston, Mass. Hundreds of smaller coastal towns in the Maritime Provinces and New England also sent out fleets of fishing craft, which supported stable local communities and were the basis for thriving commerce and the foundation of prosperity.
From the earliest colonial times to the present day, the biological riches of the Gulf of Maine have been under unceasing assault. Today the fishery of the Gulf of Maine is but a shadow of its former self. The result is impoverished communities and the destruction of a way of life. Those few commercial fishermen who have hung on to their way of life to eke out a difficult living face a mind-numbing set of rules limiting the number of days at sea, types of gear, and the timing and location of efforts.
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