Fisheries: Geography and the Maine Fisheries

Chart of the Maine Coast

Maine fisheries benefit from cool seawater temperatures, shallow water, and both rocky and muddy bottoms. In general, cold water holds more oxygen than warm water and can sustain more marine organisms. Shallow water allows more light to reach the bottom for photosynthesis, permitting marine plants, phytoplankton, and zooplankton, collectively called benthos, to flourish. These nutrients support fish, which in turn feed other marine animals and humans.

Forces from below the earth’s surface and glaciers in the last Ice Age formed banks off North America. The most famous is Grand Bank, southeast of Newfoundland. Closer to Maine is the large and dangerous Georges Bank, ninety miles east of Cape Cod. In the Gulf of Maine, smaller banks include Jeffreys Ledge, Platts Bank, Stellwagen Bank, Cashes Ledge, and Fipennies Ledge. The coast of Maine also offers excellent fishing in its many inlets and around its islands.

In the mid-nineteenth century, fleets of fishing schooners regularly made summer trips to the rich fishing areas of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The shallower waters north of Prince Edward Island and near the Isles de la Madeleine were particularly popular with fishing fleets from Boothbay Harbor and Castine.

The Bank Hand-Line Cod Fishery Schooner

The George's Bank Cod Fishery