There were changes in fishing effort over time. I interviewed inshore fishermen from Bonavista down along to the southern shore, and I basically asked them questions about how they changed their gear and how their mesh sizes in the gillnets changed over time. What about the size of their cod traps or the design of their cod traps? Did they have to fish farther and farther away from shore? Did they have to leave their gillnets out for longer and longer periods of time?
It was only by asking the fishermen those questions, one on one, that a pattern emerged.