ABSTRACT
Fishing is as old as civilization. Along with hunting and food gathering, it was a primary means of getting sustenance. Wherever there was a substantial amount of salt and fresh water there was likely to be fish and fishing. Water was an essential resource in human settlement and could offer a cornucopia of other resources—in this case abundance of fish on and around the coastal waters of Newfoundland. Precontact settlements along the coastlines around the world took advantage of the abundance of marine life for survival and trade. Sea-hunting and fishing voyages beyond the coastlines prompted extensive travel for some peoples. Italian navigator Giacomo Caboto is credited with the re-discovery of Newfoundland in 1497. By 1815, English-speaking people in Newfoundland largely replaced English migrant fishers inshore, and schooners based in New England and Newfoundland competed with European vessels in the Grand Banks.
