Sea Change | The New England Fishing Crisis

Faster, stronger, and more powerful
From the European discovery of New World fisheries around 1500 through the golden age of schooners three centuries later, most fishing in New England waters was done by hanging a baited line overboard. But the adoption of steam power in 1905 industrialized commercial fishing, and technological change over the past century have given fishing boats ever more efficiency and power.

SOURCES: Naval architect John Gilbert; Erik A.R. Ronnberg, Jr.; US Dept of the Interior fishery leaflet 594; ''The Atlantic World of Robert G. Albion''; ''Effects of Fishing Gear on the Sea Floor of New England'' by Conservation Law Foundation