Daily Kennebec journal., 1911-01-16
Gloucester Herring Fisher
men Face Losses
Owing 10 The Fish Stunning
Their Usual Grounds.
Newfoundland Fisherman Lucky
and Will Reap q Harvest.

St Johns, y F., Jan. 1J.-The loading
at Plaeentia and Fortune bays OF two
Newfoundland Schooners with herring
for the American market Whic! prob
ably will be ready to sail tomorrow,
and the announcement that more YES
Sels may undertake the business this
week following the recent action Of the
colonial cabinet refusing Americans
permission to purchase herring in the
southern bays where no treaty rights
obtain has brought sharply to notice
an unusual situation in the colonial
fisheries. The West, or Treaty coast"
widely famed as the worlds most pro-
life herring grounds. has failed the
Gloucester fishermen this season for
the first time in years. The southern
bays on the ether hand have teemcd
with the fish for months. but the ma
tives there have been without mar
ket.
Thus more than half hundred Glou-
eester fishing vessels. all carrying large
crews. have had a disastrous season.
several being forced to return home in
ballast. owing to lack of cargo, while
the natives on the southern NON
treaty coast" have been tantilized by
very doors in great schools. represent
ing the equivalent Of tidy sums of mon
ey which they We're unable to take ad-
vantage Of. owing to the regulations
against Americans being allowed priv
leges in the southern bays.
The present decision to have specially
charted Newfoundland vessels engage
in the American herring trade out of
the southern bays has opened a soiu-
tion of the matter for the natives Of
the non-troaty coast and probably will
resul. in a continuance of the trade
as long as the herring remain scarce in
west coast waters. This cannot be re-
garded as any menace to the great In
dustry out of Gloucester as New
foundland vessels cannot compete with
these from Gloucester in shipping to
the American market under ordinary
conditions. The tariff duties to which
the cargoes of the colonial vessels are
subject in entering the American mar
kct places them al a great disadvan-
tage under normal conditions and pre-
clu1es even competition.
In the recent conference at Wash
ington over the fisheries qustion, the
Newfoundland commissioners asked as
reciprocal favor of the United States.
the lowering of the duty on fish. but it
is understood no action was taken.
The advent of the Newfoundland yes
sells with their eargoes in the American
market within the next ~ days will mark
an appreciable lessening In the price of
herring. The failure of the west coast
fisheries sent the price an average of s. 20
Il barrel. as high as s. a barrel being
quoted in Bonne Bay, and the fishermen
on the southern coast can afford to cut
these prices nearly in half and still have
a tidy profit. The coming of the fish to
Gloucester also will mean continued en-
ploynent for several hundred men, who
without fish would be forced out of work
Troubles have accumulated for the
Gloucester fishermen on the west coast
this season. Only four vessels managed
to secure second cargoes and nearly a
score sailed without filling their holds.
Remaining later than usual on the west
coast in the hope of securing some part
of their usual cargo, the more unfortu-
nate of the craft were unable to freeze
their catch owing to the warm weather
until cold spell set in last week and
formed ice In the bays. Then they had
to avoid being frozen in and most
of them headed for home. One
vessel, the schooner Essex of Glou-
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