End of The Gold Rush

On Aug. 10, 1497, King Henry VII of England awarded explorer John Cabot (pounds)10 for finding "the new isle," and Newfoundland it has been ever since. Legend has Cabot's men lowering wicker baskets into the teeming Atlantic and bringing them up laden with cod. For more than 400 years the hardy Newfoundlanders who settled "the Rock" competed vigorously with Europeans in the rich fishery that developed. Too vigorously: the cod supply has been so depleted that Canadian fishermen were forced last week to haul in their nets, traps and boats along the entire northeastern coast of Newfoundland and Labrador to begin a two-year total ban on fishing for northern cod, a $700 million business.

"I've been at it since I was 10, with my dad and his dad, and I've never before collected relief," said Eli Tucker, 73, putting away his $50,000 investment in boat and traps. Tucker and three sons fish from Quidi Vidi, one of more than 300 fishing villages on the rocky coast of Newfoundland. The ban, which will cost the province of 568,000 two-fifths of its annual fishing revenues, has idled 10,000 fishermen as well as 10,000 plant workers. The federal government is paying each worker a skimpy $188 a week for 10 weeks until longer adjustment programs can be devised. What went wrong? Says Tucker: "Overfishing, the gold-rush attitude that all fishermen have."