Fishing Grounds of the Gulf of Maine by Walter H. Rich first appeared in
the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Fisheries, Report of the
United States Commissioner of Fisheries, for the fiscal year 1929.
When Captain Robert McLellan of Boothbay Harbor died in 1981, the
employees of the Maine Department of Marine Resources contributed money
to be used to purchase books in his memory, for the Department's
Fishermen's Library. Captain McLellan's family was asked what purchases
they would recommend, and a top priority was to somehow reprint this
work on the fishing grounds. This was a book that had been helpful to
Captain McLellan in his career, and one which his son, Captain Richard
McLellan, found still valid and useful.
Contributions from the employees of the Department of Marine Resources
paid to get this project started; film to reproduce the pages of the
original text was donated by the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences;
printing costs were paid by the Department.
It is the hope of the Department and its employees that the fishermen of
today will benefit from the detailed information in this publication,
and that they will remember Captain Robert McLellan, a man who knew how
to use books to enhance his career as a fisherman, who knew how to share
his knowledge with the scientific community, and who was widely
respected by fishermen and scientists alike.