MF 160 Fisheries/ Ted Ames Collection

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History: MF 160 Fisheries/ Ted Ames Collection

Number of accessions: 33
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1995-1997
Time period covered: late 19th century and 20th century
Principal interviewers: Ted Ames
Finding aides: some transcripts
Access restrictions: The copyright is retained by the interviewees in most cases.
Description: There are two parts of the Fisheries/ Ted Ames Collection, but both are recordings by Ted Ames that have to do with fisheries. Part one a series of interviews by Ames about the fishing grounds in the Gulf of Maine and Penobscot Bay fisheries. Part two is recordings from the Localized Fishery Stocks conference attended and recorded by Ted Ames about the implications of localized fish stocks on October 31 and November 1, 1997.

Related: If you find this collection interesting, you may want to check out some of the other marine/fishery related Maine resources: Downeast Fisheries Trail, Great Harbor Maritime Museum, Maine Maritime Museum, Penobscot Marine Museum, and Voices From Fisheries Oral History Project, NOAA.

3315 John Ames, interviewed by Ted Ames, January 27, 1995. Ames talks about spawning grounds for fishing in Maine; best location and season for fishing; fishing around Seal Island; fishing techniques like hand lining and trolling; bottom locations for hake, haddock, cod, cusk, and herring; fishing in the late 1800s, early 1900s; redfish fishing near the Canadian shore; fishing seasons by species; techniques to have a good fishing year; details of tub trolling; how to start out fishing in Maine. Text: 25 pp. transcript. Recording: CD 1124, C 2456.

3316 Clarence Bennett, interviewed by Ted Ames. Bennett talks about Penobscot Bay fisheries. Recording: CD 1131, C 2457.

3317 Arthur Colbeth, interviewed by Ted Ames. Colbeth talks about Penobscot Bay fisheries. Recording: CD 1132, C 2458.

3318 Elmer Gross, interviewed by Ted Ames, February 14, West Palm Beach, Florida. Gross talks about his profession as a fisherman in Stonington, Maine in the 1940s and ‘50s; the kind of fish he’d catch; where he went to find fish; encountering a German submarine; names of different fishing vessels and owners; names of fellow fishermen; size of hauls; by-catching lobsters; fishing off Cutler and Grand Manan; Old Sow Whirlpool; using pigeons for communication; who had passed away; some of the problems of fishing. Text: 35 pp. transcript. Recording: C 2459 75 minutes, CD 1133.

3319 Merton Rich, interviewed by Ted Ames (date and place unknown). Rich talks about the procedure for a sternman to get a master’s license for fishing; fishing as a family tradition versus learning it off the street; the knowledge and investment that goes into being a successful fisherman; disadvantages of lobsterman meetings; consequences of illegal fishing and impact on the business; how to get a good haul in lobster trapping; what should be done to control fishing and maintain the industry. Text: 20 pp. transcript. Recordings: C 2460, CD 2022, CD 2023.

3321 Eddie Thorn Johnson, interviewed by Ted Ames (date and place unknown). Johnson talks about red fishing in Maine in the early 60s; early fishing experiences on the Maine shore for red fishing, shrimp, and whiting; good cod fishing places in Maine; pen raising fish and releasing them in the wild; government programs growing fish and their negotiations with fishermen; practical approach to setting up a fish farming business; ways of increasing fish population along the east Maine coast; changes in Maine fisheries from the 60s to present; ways to regulate fishing so fishermen can make a living and leave sustainable resources. Text: 34 pp. transcript. Recording: CD 1134.

3457 Bill Sargent, interviewed by Ted Amesion January 27, 1995?, Stonington, Maine. Sargent talks about fishing locations for cod and haddock in the recent past; methods for ground fishing; time of year that fish were caught in old Maine fishing locations; use of foot rope in past fishing; locating fish by following their feed; catching haddock in the early 80s; effect of stress on a fish population. Recording: CD 1125.

3459 Alvin Jones, interviewed by Ted Ames. Jones talks about Penobscot Bay fisheries. Recording: C 2512 / CD 1126.

3460 Paul Venno, interviewed by Ted Ames, February 6, 1995, at Venno’s bait house in Harborside, Maine. Venno talk about Penobscot Bay fisheries; places Venno fished when he was younger including off Lincolnville, Turtle Head, Fort Point Ledge, Orrs Cove, Barred Islands; hatching blackbacks; flounder; seals eating lobsters; his relatives selling hogies; what it was like lobstering in the early days around 1880 and 1890; hunting sea birds; about ten years ago they could catch fish right off the dock in Eastport; fishing with his grandfather around Saddleback; cod fishing; dragger towing; cod eating lobsters; shag population; blackbacks; eider ducks; eelgrass; urchins; how to set out a trawl; preventing snarls. Recording: CD 1137 73 minutes.

3454 Bernard Raynes, interviewed by Ted Ames, 1995. Raynes talks about practicality of farm raised fish as a fishery; locating fish to start a sustainable farm fishery; importance in cycling between fishing types and catching different species; ways to make fishing sustainable and restock fishing areas that are becoming less populated; scallop fishing in the 70s; some fishing spots could be closed off without hurting fishermen and be used to try and repopulate the fish population there; hotspot locations for fishing in the recent past along the Maine coast; map use to mark fishing locations and paths to get to them; fishing practices and locations passed down by family; barren fishing locations used up by previous generations; reappearance of species like haddock; fishing spots damaged by pollution and those recovered by removal of pollution. Text: 32 pp. transcript. Recording: CD 1135, CD 2024.

3455 Dick Jellison, interviewed by Ted Ames. Jellison talks about Penobscot Bay fisheries. Recording: CD 1136, CD 1154 (missing).

3456 George Lawson, interviewed by Ted Ames. Lawson talks about Penobscot Bay fisheries. Recording: CD 1129.

3458 Collis Jones, interviewed by Ted Ames (date and place unknown). Jones talks about the fishing grounds in the Gulf of Maine; catching black back flounder off Skate Bank and in Grand Manan Channel; fishing at the mouth of the St. Croix River; fishing for haddock in the Bay of Fundy; fishing around the Wolves; Bulkhead Rip below Grand Manan; what fishing was like in the past; dangers of fishing near tankers; fishing around Vinalhaven; identification of spawning grounds; rules to protect the fisheries; fishermen can’t make a living with limits on cod fishing; big corporations will probably control fishing on the east coast; setting mesh size, Nordmore grate, and shrimp gear should help; lobster fishing in 1953 in Grand Manan Channel; help with lumping out; raising fish in pens; experienced fishermen should help set fishing regulations; helping other fishermen so they would not make the same mistakes he made. Recording: CD 1127 24 minutes.

3461 Ellsworth Sanford and Ray Miller, interviewed by Ted Ames. Sanford and Miller talk about Penobscot Bay fisheries. Recording: CD 1138, CD 1153, CD 1155, CD 2562.

3462 Will Spear, interviewed by Ted Ames. Spear talks about Penobscot Bay fisheries. Recording: CD 1139.

3463 Craig Pendleton and Charlie Pendleton, interviewed by Ted Ames (date and place unknown), about the fishing grounds in the Gulf of Maine. The Pendleton talks about how to bring back the depleted fishing grounds around Wood Island; what the fishery was like in years past; Machias Bay Cod Run; fishermen know more about controlling the fisheries than a research scientist sitting in a laboratory or some manager sitting at a desk; fish around Long Hill, the Whistler, Hue and Cry, Old Orchard Ground; cod, haddock; Drunken Ledge; cod came because of fresh water springs; sloops and shallops; the Lambo, New Meadows River; pollock and hake in the Kettle; Hawk Wings; Sagadahoc, Church Steeple Shoals; fish whiting east of Half Way Rock; many whiting boats out of Portland. Recording: CD 1140 57 minutes.

3464 Avery Kelly, interviewed by Ted Ames (date and place unknown). Kelly talks about the fishing grounds in the Gulf of Maine; a story about federal marshals seizing his boat and load of fish in Portland harbor; how he got one of his crew out of jail and got him to Jonesport; what fishing was like in the old days; stories about his father and grandfather who were fishermen; fishing around Moosabec Bank and Buffets Rock in the fifties and sixties; fishing for haddock and cod; story about not getting any fish and telling a crew member to shave off his mustache because that was keeping them from getting fish. Recording: CD 1141 31 minutes.

3465 William Smith, interviewed by Ted Ames. Recording: CD 1142 (missing).

3466 Ray Gilmore, interviewed by Ted Ames (date and place unknown). Gilmore talks about the fishing grounds in the Gulf of Maine; restocking of fisheries off Swans Island, Bar Harbor, Seguin, Sheepscot; effect of gill nets on ocean bottom near Rockport; effect of gill netting and dragging on the ocean bottom; dragging affected ocean bottom near Isle au Haut, Vinalhaven, Seal Island, Jeffreys Bank; bathymetric chart; marking of charts; haddock fishing near Cranberry Island; gilling off Matinicus; how to estimate the population of fish in an area; effect of draggers on fish populations; discarding by draggers of small dead fish. Recording: CD 1143 31 minutes.

3467 Jerry Balzano, interviewed by Ted Ames (date and place unknown). Balzano talks about the fishing grounds in the Gulf of Maine; the fishing skills of [Ellsworth(?)] Sanford; fishing around Richmond Island; use of Nordmore grate; what ground gear to use to cause the least damage; fishing at the Hue and Cry Gully; tagging of fish being dispersed; spawning grounds of cod and haddock. Recording: CD 1144 14 minutes.

3468 Barna Norton, interviewed by Ted Ames. Recording: CD 1145.

3469 Ellis Batson, interviewed by Ted Ames (date and place unknown). Batson talks about the fishing grounds in the Gulf of Maine: disappearance of fish around Cape Neddick because of sewer treatment plant pumping out chlorine; fishing for black backs on Skate Banks and Grand Manan Channel off Boot Head; historical habitat survey; places where fish ought to be released; once cod and haddock were cleaned out they did not come back; a lot of spawn cod fish outside the Merrimack; no spawn fish on Cape Porpoise Peak; more going on than overfishing; size of mesh, closing of spawning grounds, throwing back dead fish; Batson started sardine fishing in 1950 and then in the sixties went ground fishing; shrimping; time of year when fish spawned; effect urchins and kelp; food fish; effect of pollution; overfishing not a problem on Georges Bank; repeatability of appearance of fish in certain areas; squid in Nantucket Sound; should size of gear and boats be regulated; should be a boundary for big boats. Recording: CD 1146 29 minutes.

3470 Roger Beal, interviewed by Ted Ames. Recording: CD 1147.

3476 George Seavy, interviewed by Ted Ames. Recording: CD 1152.

3605 Recorded by Ted Ames, October 31, 1997. Localized Fishey Stocks conference attended and recorded by Ames. Recordings: C 2594, CD 2028 – CD 2029.

3606 Recorded by Ted Ames, October 31, 1997. Localized Fishey Stocks conference attended and recorded by Ames. Recordings: C 2595, CD 2030 – CD 2031.

3607 Recorded by Ted Ames, October 31, 1997. Localized Fishey Stocks conference attended and recorded by Ames. Recordings: C 2596, CD 2032 – CD 2033.

3608 Recorded by Ted Ames, October 31, 1997. Localized Fishey Stocks conference attended and recorded by Ames. Recordings: C 2597 / CD 2034.

3609 Recorded by Ted Ames, November 1, 1997. Localized Fishery Stocks conference attended and recorded by Ames about the implications of localized fish stocks. Recordings: C 2598 / CD 2035 – CD 2036.

3610 Recorded by Ted Ames, November 1, 1997. Localized Fishery Stocks conference attended and recorded by Ames about the implications of localized fish stocks. Recordings: C 2599 / CD 2037 – CD 2038.

3611 Recorded by Ted Ames, November 1, 1997. Localized Fishery Stock conference attended and recorded by Ames about the implications of localized fish stocks for the restoration of historical sites. Recordings: C 2600 / CD 2039 – CD 2040.

3612 Recorded by Ted Ames, November 1, 1997. Localized Fishery Stocks conference attended and recorded by Ames about the implications of localized fish stocks. Recordings: C 2601 / CD 2041 – CD 2042.

3613 Recorded by Ted Ames, November 1, 1997. Localized Fishery Stocks conference attended and recorded by Ted Ames about the implications of localized fish stocks. Recordings: C 2602 / CD 2043 – CD 2044.