Sardine Industry

Sardine Industry. . , Eastport's fishing industry has sustained the area from the city's beginning. Originally, shallow-water fish harvesting was adapted from Passamaquoddy Indians' use of weirs. Eventually, Eastport became the Sardine Capital of the World, at onetime being home to eighteen sardine factories as well as to the world's largest sardine cannery. Already a dangerous occupation, the fishing fleet found itself contending with the Old Sow, located between Eastport and Deer Island, New Brunswick, the largest whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere with a diameter of 250 feet., Sardine-canning developed as our shipbuilding industry waned and contributed significantly to the rapid residential growth on the island. Sardines were first canned in the United States by Julius Wolff in Eastport in 1876. The last Eastport sardines were canned in 1983., Photos from top right: , Largest sardine cannery in the world, Eastport. - Circa 1900 Photograph courtesy of The Quoddy Tides., Packing Sardines. "It took up my time and the money was good. I enjoyed packing and the crowd of people. The smell wasn't too bad - better than fertilizer." Memory of a eannery worker. Photograph courtesy of The Quoddy Tides., Eastport Harbor crowded with fishing boats. Photograph courtesy of The Quoddy Tides., Unloading sardines from a sardine carrier at Eastport. -Circa 1950. Photograph courtesy of The Quoddy Tides.