Section N: Fisheries

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N.H. Morse, Dalhousie University

Primary Operations (Series N1-48)
Fish Processing (Series N49-82)
Value of Exports and Imports (Series N83-113)
Miscellaneous Fisheries Statistics (Series N114-142)

Statistics of Canadian production and trade in fish are presented in four parts: primary operations (series N1-48), processing (series N49-82), value of exports and imports (series N83-113), and miscellaneous statistics (series N114-142).

The series included here contain the most generally useful data now being compiled. They are based on published sources or obtained directly from the Department of Fisheries and the Environment, Ottawa; the International Fisheries Commission, Seattle, Wash.; and the International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, Dartmouth, N.S. However, a great deal more information is currently available. Much of it can be found in the comprehensive annual volumes, Fisheries Statistics of Canada, issued by Statistics Canada. In addition the reader is referred to the following: three books on fisheries statistics issued by the federal Department of Fisheries and the Environment (hereafter called federal fisheries department): No. 1, Landings in the Inshore Fishery of the Maritime Provinces, 1919-1950, (Ottawa, mimeographed, 1953; No. 2, The Canadian Commercial Fisheries of the Great Lakes, (Ottawa, mimeographed, 1955); No. 3, The Commercial Salmon Fisheries of British Columbia, (Ottawa, mimeographed, 1958); and also periodic consolidations of fisheries statistics such as Annual Statistical Review of Canadian Fisheries, vols. I-IX, federal fisheries department, Ottawa; British Columbia Catch Statistics, federal fisheries department, (Ottawa, Queen's Printer); Canadian Fisheries Statistics published as a supplement to the Acadian Fisheries Annual, (Gardenvale, Que.); and Statistics Canada, Monthly Review of Canadian Fisheries Statistics, (Ottawa, Queen's Printer).

Reference should also be made to the monograph published by the Royal Commission on Canada's Economic Prospects, The Commercial Fisheries of Canada, (Ottawa, Queen's Printer, 1957).

Various statistics on fish landings, production, number of fishermen and other data can be found in reports of the provincial and federal royal commissions made since Confederation and in other official documents. However, examination of these statistics reveals they are almost invariably derived in the early years from the annual reports of the federal fisheries department.

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General note

Under the power given to it by the British North America Act the federal government has full legislative jurisdiction over both the coastal and inland fisheries of Canada. Consequently, all regulations governing fishing are made by the federal government. Some regulations concerning the inland fisheries are made on the recommendation of the provinces. Initially, full administrative control also resided with the federal government. As a result of various court awards and agreements with the provinces through the years, administration of fisheries has become divided between the federal and provincial governments. The result is that the federal government administers all tidal and sea fisheries except those of Quebec, the inland fisheries of the Atlantic provinces, excepting possibly ponds and lakes in Newfoundland, and fisheries of the Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories. Quebec administers all its fisheries including those in salt waters. Ontario, the Prairie provinces and British Columbia administer their freshwater species though the last does not collect any statistics.

Processing industries are under the legislative and administrative control of the provinces, though inspection for sanitary purposes, interprovincial trade and exports is under federal control.

Until the fiscal year ending 31 March 1917, statistics of the fisheries were assembled by the Fisheries Branch of the Department of Marine and Fisheries, established shortly after Confederation, through its widespread organization of fisheries officers. Starting with 1917 the data have been assembled at the Dominion Bureau of Statistics and its successor, Statistics Canada, though the fisheries officers of the Department of Fisheries and the Environment continue to play an important part in gathering the data (see below).

The quality of the data contained in the annual report for the period before 1917 is not high. Methods of reporting differed from area to area, and apparently supervisory procedures were not sufficiently well developed to permit early discovery and correction of errors in reporting and in methods of collection. On examination, the annual reports leave many questions unanswered concerning the basis on which the various compilations were made. The user will find it useful to refer to the comments of Ruth Fulton Grant in Canadian Atlantic Fishery, (Toronto, Ryerson Press, 1934), appendix A. Quality of the statistics is undoubtedly much higher for the period since 1917.

Primary Operations (Series N1-48)

General note

Primary operations include catching and landing of all products of the coastal and inland waters.

In most fisheries under federal administration, including all fisheries of the Atlantic provinces, the commercial waters of British Columbia, the Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories, the primary data on landings are obtained from purchase slips made out by the buyer at the time of landing and first sale, a procedure begun in the 1950s. These slips are sent to offices of the federal fisheries department where they are tabulated and the results forwarded to Statistics Canada for publication. They include data on species sold, quantity, prices, location of purchase and sometimes the size of fish and type of gear used. In Newfoundland, marketing facilities and practices are such that the foregoing procedures were not used until the mid-1960s. In the more remote parts, a considerable amount of processing on shore was done by fishermen themselves. In these areas the data were assembled by fisheries officers who obtained estimates of landings and stocks in storage. Supplementary purchase slips are prepared by fisheries officers, representing estimates of landed weight equivalents of fish processed by fishermen, direct sales to local users, bait used and fish consumed by fishermen's families.

In other areas of Canada, the data are collected through provincial administrative officers, tabulated in provincial offices and assembled by Statistics Canada. Quebec collects data from buyers who report weekly purchases or, in the remote areas, by the procedure formerly used in outlying areas of Newfoundland. In Ontario data are collected from fishermen who are required to report as a condition of obtaining licences. In Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, data come from the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation, fish buyers and fishermen.

Before recent procedures were introduced, heavy reliance was placed on working back from data on processed fish and fish products, with the use of conversion factors to estimate the landings in primary form from the processed form data. Information on processed forms was obtained from fish processing and handling plants and from fisheries inspectors for fish exported.

Prior to 1917 the data were obtained by officers of the Fisheries Branch of the Department of Marine and Fisheries, probably by visiting communities and estimating the annual catch and its disposition. A revision of procedures in the fiscal year 1910-11 improved the quality of data collected. Before that, reports covered marketings and included values of forms after processing on land. The department's annual reports suggest these might also have some duplication owing to the nature of the reporting forms provided to the officers. Beginning with 1910-11, two forms of improved design were used, one for recording data on landings and the other on the marketing of primary or processed products (excluding sales of primary products to processors) as they moved into channels of trade.

Fish are landed in primary forms varying from 'fresh round', that is, as taken from the water, to split and salted or even further processed forms. The value of landings is the actual value received on landing, whatever the form.

The basis of measuring weight on landings is the same as in Statistics Canada, Fisheries Statistics of Canada, 1975, (Catalogue 24-201), p. 7, as follows for the Atlantic Coast:

Fish and shellfish in the Atlantic provinces are reported as follows: cod, haddock, pollock, hake, cusk and catfish as 'gutted head on', halibut, swordfish and tuna as 'gutted head off', except in Newfoundland which reports halibut as 'gutted head on'. All other sea fish and freshwater fish are shown as 'round'. Molluscs and crustaceans are reported as 'in shell' except scallops which are 'shucked' and squid which are in the 'round'.

Some species of fish are landed in various forms and are converted to the forms mentioned above by multiplying the landed weight by appropriate factors.

The same source reports that in British Columbia no effort is made to convert fish, with the exception of salmon as landed, to a common landed form. In Ontario, landings are reported in the round form but it is possible that for the northern inland waters the figures include some dressed fish. For the Prairie provinces and the Northwest Territories, fish are landed in various forms and are converted to round weight by multiplying the landed weight by appropriate factors.

The method of reporting landed weight has been changed over time. For example, in Fisheries Statistics of Canada, 1930, it is stated that fresh fish (that is, weight landed) is gutted head on for cod, haddock, hake, cusk and pollock, that it is gutted head and tail off for albacore and that in all other cases it means fish as it comes from the water, in the round. It is probable that the reporting was on a reasonably uniform basis from year to year, at least for major species in the East, but West Coast measures may contain considerable variation in the mixture of different forms on landing.

Source: for 1917 to 1975, Statistics Canada, Fisheries Statistics of Canada, (Catalogue 24-201); for 1911 to 1917, Department of Marine and Fisheries, Annual Report, Fisheries.

Figures for Newfoundland in Fisheries Statistics of Canada begin in 1952. Prior to 1919 no landed values were reported in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Yukon Territory. Value of fish landed is value at the boat's side on landing, based on sale to the first buyer. Values given cover fish of all kinds, molluscs and crustaceans, livers, tongues, viscera and scales, seaweed, seal skins, bait worms and other aquatic life from both sea and inland fisheries.

For values landed by main species, see series N25-37 and also the general note to series N1-48.

Source: for 1917 to 1975, Statistics Canada, Fisheries Statistics of Canada, (Catalogue 24-201); for 1869 to 1917, Department of Marine and Fisheries, Annual Report, Fisheries, except as noted below.

N12. Cod, for 1869 to 1917, is from Oscar E. Sette, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Fisheries, Statistics of the Catch of Cod off the East Coast of North America, to 1926, appendix IX to the Report of the U.S. Commission of Fisheries for 1927 (Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1928), table 7, p. 3. Sette's primary data prior to 1917 were drawn from the annual report of the Department of Marine and Fisheries. For 1910 to 1916 (fiscal years 1911 to 1917) Sette took the catch landed as reported. For years prior to 1910 he converted marketings, which were given in departmental reports and were solely for dried cod before 1903, to a landed basis, using conversion factors given in the document cited. These conversion factors were designed to give estimates on a fresh round basis. In an appended note to the document he states that he had mistakenly assumed landings were reported (presumably from 1910 onward) on a round basis but that they were in fact on a fresh gutted basis.

N12 and 16. East Coast cod and herring totals are aggregates of provincial data.

N13. Haddock, 1880 to 1910, is from A.W.H. Needler, U.S. Department of Commerce, Statistics of the Haddock Fishery in North American Waters, (Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1930), table 2, pp. 30-31. Statistics given by Needler are calculated from the weights of products marketed as reported in the annual report of the Department of Marine and Fisheries with the use of conversion factors to yield weight on a fresh gutted basis as presented here. These factors are contained in Needler's document. He also makes the following comment (p. 3l):

By using a figure for the Digby catch of the average in the two adjacent years, Needler arrives at an estimate for the total catch of 52.4 million pounds for 1897. There is a period of nine years from 1910-11 to 1918 during which haddock-landing statistics are available from the annual reports of the department. The statistics available from the source differ from Needler's by varying amounts. Needler's figures are invariably larger than those contained in the annual reports, in most years the difference being of the order of 5 to 7 million pounds. In two years, 1910-11 and 1918, the difference approached 15 million pounds.

N18. Scallop landings were reported in barrels for the period 1915-16 to 1934. These have been converted to pounds using the conversion factor 1 barrel equals 20 pounds shucked. For the period 1934 to 1950, landings were reported in gallons and have been converted to pounds using the conversion factor 1 gallon equals 10 pounds shucked. Subsequently, landings have been reported as shucked.

N24. West Coast halibut statistics are drawn exclusively from the records of Statistics Canada and the annual report of the federal fisheries department. Prior to 1934 total landings for British Columbia include landings by United States vessels at British Columbia ports.

The International Fisheries Commission constructed a revised series of Pacific halibut landings dating from 1888 in which they attempted to make corrections for duplications and errors in official statistics. The commission statistics of landings differ markedly from those recorded here for the period 1918 to 1933. Canadian West Coast halibut landings compiled by the commission are given in this volume as series N128. The reader is referred to the note on N128 and to F.H. Bell, H.A. Dunlop, and N.L. Freeman, Pacific Coast Halibut Landings 1888 to 1950 and Catch According to Area of Origin, (Seattle, Washington, International Fisheries Commission, 1952) for a full description of the commission's procedures in the construction of their series.

Source: for 1917 to 1975, Statistics Canada, Fisheries Statistics of Canada, (Catalogue 24-201); for 1911 to 1917, Department of Marine and Fisheries, Annual Report, Fisheries.

See the general note to series N1-48.

Source: for 1917 to 1975, Statistics Canada, Fisheries Statistics of Canada, (Catalogue 24-201); for 1878 to 1917, Department of Marine and Fisheries, Annual Report, Fisheries.

The basis on which the number of fishermen is calculated differs from province to province.

N39. In Newfoundland the count represented the number of persons who were employed in the fishery for two weeks or more during the year, but in 1969 procedures were altered to conform to those adopted in the Maritime provinces and Quebec.

N40-43. In Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Quebec the data are based on one count for the year without reference to the amount of time the person was engaged in the fishery.

N44. In Ontario the count is based on the number of commercial fishing licences issued but adjustment is made to correct for the issuance of more than one licence to a person and for the fact that certain licensees may fail to engage in fishing.

N45-47. In Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories the data given are the total of all commercial licences issued with no adjustment for duplication or failure of licensees to engage in the fishery. Since different licences are necessary for different lakes and different seasons, data given for these provinces undoubtedly contain a substantial amount of duplication and must be regarded as a considerable overestimate of the number of persons engaged in the fishery.

N48. In British Columbia the count is based chiefly on the number of commercial licences issued with corrections for duplication. Estimates are made of the number of fishermen working as crews on fish packers and carrying smacks and these are included in the data given. Figures do not include persons employed to operate salmon traps.

Fish Processing (Series N49-82)

General note

Data on fish processing plants were obtained, like those of other sections, by questionnaire sent to the processing establishments. Fisheries officers of the federal fisheries department assist in obtaining accurate returns quickly.

Before collection of data by Statistics Canada, more limited data were collected by the fisheries officers of the old Department of Marine and Fisheries. These data were limited to the value of products marketed, the number of persons employed in processing and handling plants, and capital invested. They were obtained by fisheries officers going to the plants and obtaining the information directly.

In earlier years a considerable amount of processing was done by fishermen themselves after fish were landed. Data on the value of products thus prepared were estimated by fisheries officers from information obtained in much the same way as those on landings in remote areas of Newfoundland prior to the late 1960s (see the general note to series N1-48). A major part of the information is obtained from local merchants and in the warehouses where fish for export are inspected.

No information is collected on processing in Ontario and the Prairie provinces.

The data for series N49-82 cover fish processors, whose main business is cutting, freezing, drying, salting, smoking, pickling and canning; fish packers and handlers, who primarily buy and sell fresh fish only, or who buy processed fish and fish products and sell without further processing.

Source: for 1917 to 1975, Statistics Canada, Fisheries Statistics of Canada, (Catalogue 24-201); for 1870 to 1917, Department of Marine and Fisheries, Annual Reports, Fisheries; for 1870 to 1960, the data were prepared by the Economics Service, Department of Fisheries and the Environment (the names of the service and of the department have changed over time).

Values given in the table represent sales value free on board the processing plant, except for items sold directly to consumers by fishermen or exported directly by fishermen, in which cases the values represent amounts received by fishermen.

The process categories listed in the table include the following specific product forms contained in the original statistics.

N50. Fresh whole includes fresh round or dressed fish, molluscs and crustaceans in the shell, and fresh roe, livers and caviar. Frozen whole (series N52), not given as a separate category prior to 1945, is included with series N50 before that year. Prior to the fiscal year ending 31 March 1910 the sources of information did not always list in detail the marketed form of the minor species. It is assumed that this fish was sold in the fresh state and therefore has been included under the category fresh whole.

N51. Fresh filleted includes fresh fillets, lobster meat, shucked scallops and shucked meats. Frozen filleted (series N53), not given as a separate category prior to 1945, is included with series N51 before that year.

N52. Frozen whole includes the same items as series N50, but the values of molluscs and crustaceans marketed in frozen form are small. This item is included in series N51 prior to 1945.

N53. Frozen filleted includes frozen fillets, frozen blocks and sticks, fresh and frozen steaks and frozen shucked molluscs or crustaceans. This item is included in series N51 prior to 1945.

N54. Canned includes all species canned and also canned and salted.

N55. Smoked includes smoked round or dressed and smoked fillets.

N56. Salted and pickled include salted, dried, boneless, mild cured, green salted, pickled, vinegar cured, dry salted, and salted and smoked.

N57. Oil includes all types of marine oils used for vitamin and industrial purposes.

N58. Meal includes fish meal, whale meal, liver meal and offal meal.

Source: Statistics Canada, Fisheries Statistics of Canada, (Catalogue 24-201).

N59 and 62. Wages and salaries include payments made for contract or piece work.

N60 and 63. Materials used include fish, by far the largest item, salt, containers, process supplies and other materials.

N61 and 64. Fuel and electricity includes coal, fuel oil, other petroleum products and wood, as well as electricity.

Source: for 1960 to 1975, Statistics Canada, Fish Products Industry, (Catalogue 32-216); for earlier years prepared by the federal fisheries department from: for 1917 to 1960, Statistics Canada, Fisheries Statistics of Canada, (Catalogue 24-201); for 1895 to 1917, Department of Marine and Fisheries, Annual Report, Fisheries.

The number of persons employed in processing plants is calculated on the following basis: salaried employees are counted once for the year in question; the number of wage employees is calculated on the basis of the average number of workers employed. This average is calculated from counts of employees made monthly. Until 1953 this average was based on the number of months the plant in question actually operated. Since 1953 the average has been calculated on the basis of 12 months whether the plant operated for the whole of that period or not. The present method of calculation is therefore closer to a concept of person-years worked than to a count of the number of persons employed and would clearly be a considerable underestimate of the number of persons employed in fish processing plants for some period during the year.

Prior to 1917 the figures are total number of persons employed, the breakdown by sex not being available before that date.

Source: for 1960 to 1974, Statistics Canada, Fish Products Industry, (Catalogue 32-216); for 1939 to 1958, the statistics were provided directly by Statistics Canada; for 1959 and for 1919 to 1938, Statistics Canada, Fisheries Statistics of Canada, (Catalogue 24-201).

Value of Exports and Imports (Series N83-113)

Source: for 1960 to 1975, Statistics Canada, Exports by Commodities, (Catalogue 65-004); for earlier years prepared by the federal fisheries department from: 1930 to 1959, Statistics Canada, Fisheries Statistics of Canada, (Catalogue 24-201); for 1914 to 1929, Department of Trade and Commerce, Trade of Canada; for 1911 to 1913, Department of Customs, Report; for 1867 to 1912, Department of Customs, Trade and Navigation.

N85. Other Europe includes Albania, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, German Democratic Republic, Federal Republic of Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Yugoslavia.

N86. Continental South America includes Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay and Venezuela.

N87. Central America and Caribbean include Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, French West Indies, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward and Windward Islands, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago.

N88. United States and possessions include the 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

N89. Other includes Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and all other countries not included in N84-88.

Source: for 1960 to 1973, Statistics Canada, Exports by Commodities, (Catalogue 65-004); for earlier years prepared by the federal fisheries department from: for 1917 to 1959, Statistics Canada, Fisheries Statistics of Canada, (Catalogue 24-201); for 1911 to 1917, Department of Trade and Commerce, Trade of Canada; for 1905 to 1910, Department of Trade and Commerce, Canada Year Book; (Catalogue 11-202); for 1871 to 1904, Department of Customs, Trade and Navigation.

The species classification includes all products derived from the species in question except reduction products which are included under series N99.

N90. Groundfish include the following sea fish: catfish, cod, cusk, flounders and soles, haddock, hake, lingcod, pollock, redfish, sablefish, turbot and small amounts of related species of sea fish. The distinction between groundfish and pelagic fish such as herring is that the former species are found on the bottom while the latter are found nearer the surface of the water. Halibut, which are groundfish, are shown separately in series N91.

N98. All other shellfish include clams, oysters, scallops, squid, crabs, shrimps and prawns.

N99. Oil and meal include these products from all species.

N100. All other include a large variety of sea fish and inland fish, not already covered, and seal skins.

Source: for 1960 to 1973, Statistics Canada, Imports by Commodities, (Catalogue 65-007); for earlier years prepared by the federal fisheries department from: for 1918 to 1959, Statistics Canada, Fisheries Statistics of Canada, (Catalogue 24-201); for 1914 to 1917, Department of Trade and Commerce, Trade of Canada; for 1873 to 1914, Department of Customs, Trade and Navigation.

The species classification includes all products derived from the species in question except reduction products which are included under series N112.

N102. Groundfish include cod, haddock, pollock and lingcod.

N111. All other shellfish include shrimps and prawns, and squid.

N112. Oil and meal include all oil and meal products from all species, including whales.

N113. All other include all other species of sea fish and inland fish, fur skins of marine animals, fish livers, sponges and turtles.

Miscellaneous Fisheries Statistics (Series N114-142)

Source: for 1961 to 1974, Statistics Canada, Prices and Price Indexes, (Catalogue 62-002); for earlier years, data for series N114-117, from 1913 to 1960, supplied by the federal fisheries department; series N118, from 1913 to 1950, is from Statistics Canada, Wholesale Price Indexes, 1913-1950, (Catalogue 62-D-102), and from 1950 to 1960, Statistics Canada, Prices and Price Indexes, (Catalogues 62-002 and 62-501).

Source: for 1961 to 1974 prepared by the Planning and Finance Service, Department of Fisheries and the Environment; for earlier years prepared by the Economics Service, Department of Fisheries from: for 1943 to 1960, Public Accounts of Canada, Part II; for 1932 to 1942, Auditor General's Reports.

The data in this table record expenditures for the fiscal year in which they were actually made. Public Accounts of Canada record amounts for the recouping of the working fund of the Prices Support Board and of the indemnity funds as of the year in which that fund was replenished by general vote. Consequently, totals shown in this table do not correspond in all cases with those published in the Public Accounts of Canada.

Only expenditures under the jurisdiction of the federal fisheries department are given here. Expenditures by other federal departments and agencies (for example, expenditures by the public works department on construction and maintenance of wharves and harbours) are not included.

Data on expenditures of the federal fisheries department are available for years prior to 1932 in the Auditor General's Reports.

N120. Administration includes all departmental administration expenditure that might be found in any government department.

N121. Resource development includes expenditures for the Fisheries Research Board, Protection Branch, Fish Culture Branch and for the development of the deep sea fisheries and the destruction of predators.

N122. Price support and deficiency payments include the fishing bounty, first instituted to encourage fishing in 1882, and payments under the Fisheries Prices Support Board.

N123. Other subsidies include payments through the Fishermen's Indemnity Plan and for the construction of vessels and bait facilities.

N124. Other expenditures include those for international commissions, branches for inspection and consumers, contributions to fishery exhibitions and wartime damage compensation.

Source: Statistical Bulletins, International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, (Dartmouth, N.S.), vols. I-XXIV.

In order to consider problems affecting the fisheries of the Northwest Atlantic, the United States convened a conference of 11 countries in Washington in January 1949, which resulted in the International Convention for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries. Provision was made for the establishment and maintenance by the contracting governments of the International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries (ICNAF) which was responsible for scientific investigation for maintaining fish stocks which supported international fisheries. The convention area and its five sub-areas were defined and a panel established for each sub-area. Membership in the commission expanded as additional countries entered ICNAF so that the commission eventually included: Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, Denmark, France, German Democratic Republic, Federal Republic of Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United States and the United Kingdom. See ICNAF Handbook, (Dartmouth, N.S.) revised 1969, and subsequent updates.

Source: data for 1951 to 1958 were obtained directly from the International Fisheries Commission; for 1890 to 1950, F.H. Bell, H.A. Dunlop, N.L. Freeman, Pacific Coast Halibut Landings 1888 to 1950 and Catch According to Area of Origin, table 1, pp. 10 and 11.

Statistics are for fish landed head off and gutted. For 1929 to 1958 the data were collected by the International Fisheries Commission. Prior to 1929 estimates are based upon data for British Columbia obtained from annual reports of the Department of Marine and Fisheries and from the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, amended by information obtained from records of fish exchanges, by material from the Pacific Fisherman, a trade journal published in Seattle, and by logs and other records obtained from ship owners and captains.

Although it is stated that the data are for calendar years, it appears that for 1907 to 1917 they are for fiscal years ending March 31 of the following year.

The figures are landings by Canadian registered vessels. Apparently landings by United States vessels in British Columbia were shipped in bond to the United States. There was little landing by Canadian vessels in United States ports. However, there may have been an error in recording the figure for 1907 and the figure given and reproduced here may be for the total of Canadian and United States landings in British Columbia.

Source: for 1930 to 1948, Report of the Newfoundland Fisheries Board; for 1927 to 1929, Newfoundland Fisheries Reports; for 1806 to 1926, Oscar E. Sette, Statistics of the Catch of Cod off the East Coast of North America to 1926, table 2, pp. 738 and 739. Sette gave the source of his data as: for 1804 to 1904, William MacGregor, Report on the Trade and Commerce of Newfoundland for the Four Years ending June 30, 1906; for 1905 to 1924, annual reports of the Department of Marine and Fisheries in Newfoundland; for 1925 and 1926 the United States Consul, St. John's, Newfoundland.

The information appearing in this table was reported in quintals in the source. It has been converted to thousands of pounds using the conversion factor 1 quintal equals 112 pounds.

Source: Newfoundland customs returns.

Source: for 1945, Newfoundland Census, 1945; for 1857 to 1935, Census of Newfoundland and Labrador, 1935.

Source: Newfoundland Fisheries Board.

The Newfoundland Fisheries Board was established in 1936 to introduce a group marketing procedure. This was followed by the establishment of the Newfoundland Associated Fish Exporters Limited in 1947 as selling agency for Newfoundland and Labrador salt cod.

Source: Newfoundland Fisheries Board.

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