Salmon Cove: Located approximately 6 km (3.7 mi) north of Carbonear, one assumes that the town was named after an abundance of Atlantic Salmon in the area.

When one talks about fishing in Newfoundland, one thinks predominantly about the role of the commercial cod fishery, which is what really put Newfoundland "on the map", as you have already read in earlier chapters, however as you will read salmon fishing has also been very important for the economy of the province.

It is known that as early as the sixteenth century, and most likely even before that, ships were coming from a number of European countries to "exploit" the cod fishery. According to ENL sources, "this resource has provided the basis for settlement of the Island and the subsequent growth in population".

Up until the Twentieth Century "the fishery (particularly the cod fishery) provided almost the sole economic base for Newfoundland", interestingly there is no community in Newfoundland that is named after the "cod", even though the Atlantic Cod is the "single most important species in the Newfoundland and Labrador area and has been fished off Newfoundland for centuries".

There is a possibility that the valley known as Codroy comes from the notion that cod was so abundant in the area, the "Roy" part of the name should have been written as roi, meaning "king", as in "king of the cod fish", however there are many that disagree with this theory.

While it is almost a given that "whenever the word fish is unqualified in Newfoundland it usually refers to the cod", there is, nevertheless, another fish of extreme importance to Newfoundland, the Atlantic Salmon.

Non-commercial fishing for salmon, referred to as "sportfishing" is also of great economic value, however it is the monies spent to travel to Newfoundland, to stay at fishing lodges, to purchase licenses, etc. that are of significant economic benefit to the economy of the province.

That being said, there has been, in the past, an important commercial salmon fishery, as described below in an excerpt from the ENL:

THE COMMERCIAL FISHERY. The Beothuk and other native peoples of Newfoundland and Labrador are known to have fished for salmon prior to European settlement, while the Norse noted their abundance in Newfoundland rivers.

Similarly, salmon were harvested, as a source of food and supplementary business activity, from the earliest days of the English migratory fishery.

Nevertheless, commercial exploitation of the Colony's salmon resource did not begin in any significant way until the 1700s, reflecting a pattern of settlement which was largely restricted to the Avalon Peninsula, where there were relatively few salmon rivers.

Undoubtedly, the threat of encounters with hostile Indians, who are known to have killed several early fishermen, also provided a strong inducement to avoid the thickly forested river valleys frequented by the Beothuk.

By 1723, however, George Skeffington had established a sizeable salmon fishing enterprise in Bonavista and Notre Dame bays.

Production from these areas and other sites in Placentia Bay and near Trepassey resulted in exports of about 150,000 kg per year by the late 1730s; an amount which increased considerably in the next two or three decades.

Newfoundland's population grew rapidly in the late years of the eighteenth century, with migration increasing along the northeast coast, as well as to Labrador and other areas of Newfoundland.

By the late 1700s, the salmon fishery had expanded throughout northeastern Newfoundland, as well as to rivers on the south and west coasts, the latter prosecuted by Newfoundland, Nova Scotian, French and American interests.

In Labrador the best known of the early commercial salmon fisheries is that of George Cartwright, who established hunting, trapping, and fishing operations near Mary's Harbour and at Sandwich Bay.

In 1779 Cartwright reported catching more than 12,000 salmon at Paradise River in a three week period, with an average weight of 15 pounds.

Indeed, Cartwright lamented the fact that a shortage of salt and storage facilities prevented the harvesting of even greater numbers, estimating that it would have been possible to produce 1000 tierces (about 150,000 kg round weight) from this single location.

Unfortunately, there were a number of factors that led to the demise of the commercial salmon fishing industry: Despite the large numbers of salmon rivers, the value of salmon catches never achieved much more than local importance, and the settlers had little knowledge of conservation or of the spawning habits of the salmon.

In some cases potential was destroyed by the placement of nets which prevented the salmon from reaching their spawning areas....

Moreover, the growth of the sawmilling industry in the latter part of the nineteenth century led to the construction of dams that interfered with migration patterns and resulted in the pollution of many of the rivers with sawdust and wood scraps, while increased economic activity in a variety of endeavours contributed to erosion and siltation.

These, and similar abuses, prevented the industry from realizing much more than a fraction of its potential. The recreational salmon fishery was similarly doomed, as can be also seen from the excerpt below from the ENL:

THE RECREATIONAL FISHERY. Virtually every river in Newfoundland supports a population of Atlantic salmon, and in 1993 there were more than 140 scheduled rivers on the Island and several dozen along the Labrador coast.

Only holders of a valid recreational salmon fishing licence are permitted to fish in scheduled rivers, using an artificial fly during the open season, which generally runs from June until early September.

An abundance of rivers and the Atlantic salmon's reputation as a superb game fish has long made Newfoundland a mecca for sport fishermen.

This was particularly true in the late 1800s and early 1900s when salmon were present in much larger numbers, and were commonly of much larger size.

While Newfoundland enjoyed a reputation as a sports fisherman's paradise, there was also widespread recognition that habitat destruction, along with a largely unregulated commercial and recreational fishery, was having a severe impact on the salmon.

Some measures were put in place by 1892 to protect the resource, particularly the employing of wardens to patrol the rivers during the summer months.

Measures were also undertaken, from 1904 onwards, to improve stocks through the removal of natural barriers to migration by blasting or the construction of fish ladders.
By 1930 it was widely noted that salmon in excess of 30 pounds, previously common in the commercial fishery, were becoming increasingly scarce, even though total commercial landings had increased significantly between 1925 and 1930.

This change led to questions about the sustainability of the resource, and resulted in considerable scientific research being conducted on salmon during the 1930s and 1940s.

In addition, new conservation measures were adopted, with a catch limit of eight salmon per day being introduced in 1939.

Increased funding was also provided for projects to improve the productive capacity of a number of river systems. With Confederation, responsibility for the management of the Atlantic salmon passed to the federal Department of Fisheries.

Included within this responsibility are activities relating to research, conservation, and habitat protection and improvement.

The Province, for its part, continued in a visible, albeit a more limited role, through the issuance of licences for the recreational fishery.

The federal Department of Fisheries and the Fisheries Research Board of Canada continued to remove obstructions and construct fishways, or salmon ladders, on several rivers throughout Newfoundland, and accelerated the research and enhancement activities which had been initiated by the Commission of Government.

Unfortunately, despite these and other initiatives, the destruction continued and, by the 1960s, the great runs of large Atlantic salmon and sea-run brook trout were largely a thing of the past.

Contributing to the loss was the opening up of the interior, habitat degradation, excessive commercial harvests, poaching and largely unregulated fresh water recreational fishing.

The name of the area appears on French and English maps, as early as circa 1680 as crique de saumon or Salmon Cove. Just outside the cove, there is an abandoned neighborhood, with the interesting name of Marshall's Folly.

Most of the fishermen from Salmon Cove probably were part of the Labrador fishery as "stationers" According to information presented in the ENL, the term stationer (aka "freighters", "roomers" and sometimes "squatters") refers to "migratory fishermen, women and children from the northeast coast of Newfoundland who pursued the northern Newfoundland or Labrador cod fishery from fixed shore bases".

They would leave their homes, most of them in Conception Bay at the first signs of summer, heading north "in all manner of conveyance to be dropped off at points along the French Shore (rarely) or Labrador coast".

Once they arrived at their destination they would "resumed possession of fishing premises or "rooms" vacated the previous fall to spend the next roughly four months fishing and curing their catch".

It should be noted that what they were after were most likely cod (or seal) and not salmon.

After the opening of the Bell Island iron mines, the mining industry was the primary source of employment. According to the town's website, Salmon Cove was incorporated in August 1974 and is very well known for the "Salmon Cove Sands" beach, which offers 5 km (.31 miles) of "gorgeous, sandy beach with a backdrop of imposing cliffs, carved out by the North Atlantic for countless years".

In addition, there is a boardwalk that fringes the beach, along with a lookout and an observation deck. In 2016 it had a population of 680 residents, a slight decrease of 2.2% from the 2011 statistics, when there were 695 living in the area.

Used with permission from "Uncovering the Origin of 1001 Unique Place Names in Newfoundland and Labrador" 2021 Jennifer Leigh Hill

Address of this page: http://nl.ruralroutes.com/SalmonCoveNL