he fishing has always been good off Prince Edward Island. Cod, mackerel, herring, salmon - the Island's north shore offered easy access to the Gulf of St. Lawrence's rich fish stocks. But the early British settlers ignored the fishery. They tended to see it as a distraction from the more important task of creating farmland.

Just because the early British settlers ignored the fishery doesn't mean others weren't interested. By the early 1800s the huge American fishing fleet based in the Gloucester area of Massachusetts was coming here every season. First the Americans fished for cod. When the cod was fished out, they fished for mackerel. By the 1830s you could have stood on almost any part of the North shore and seen upwards of 600 schooners chasing huge shoals of mackerel. Somebody once asked one of these Gloucester fishing captains why he thought Prince Edward Islanders stay at home while he sailed so far to fish off their shores. "Well," he offered, "people with farms like them hadn't ought to go fishing."