Fishing Q&A

How far off the coast do fishing boats go to catch large amounts of fish?

For present day, but if you know the answer for the 1830s, it would be a GREAT help and I would love you!

Public Comments

1. Depends on the coast and the fish you're after, and what counts as large amounts. Off California, the continental shelf is only a few miles wide, so the big schools of tuna (before pollution and overfishing) often ran within ten miles of shore. But nowadays you seldom even see tuna less than 20 miles from shore. Off the east coast, with the much wider continental shelf, you have to go a lot farther offshore to get into the deep water these fish prefer. Similarly, years ago you could make huge hauls of rockfish (bottom fish) in water 100 feet or so in depth, within a mile or two of shore; nowadays you might have to run to offshore banks in 600-1000 feet, 10-50 miles offshore to load up on the same species. And then the Asian factory ships which are wreaking havoc on open ocean fish (tuna, salmon, etc) range all across the Pacific, hundreds of miles from shore. For the 1830's I assume you're looking at the cod fisheries off New England; you might try Googling around for details on the main areas that were fished.
2. yep depends on the type of fish you want.. of the texas coast we can sometimes go just 1 mile out for reds and 20 miles out for king mackeral, jack cravel just depends on what you want..locals can tell you what s in close and whats further out