cod-seine n See also SEINE.
   1 A large net, up to 600 feet (182.8 m) in length, set around a school of cod, the 'foots' drawn together to form a bag, and hauled at sea or in shallow water near the shore; freq in place-names.
   [1775] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 92 We had fish for the haul this morning, and I never saw so fine a place for a cod-sein; the bottom being smooth, white sand, with an extensive beach of the same. [1775] 1895 PROWSE 342 Codd Seans we deem a great nuizance as by them we destroy a great quantity of small fish. 1861 NOBLE 48 That heavy cod-seine, a hundred fathoms long, sank the stern of our barge rather deeply, and made it row heavily. [1885] 1897 Nfld Law Reports 100 [He] was engaged ... in the capacity of master of cod-seine, and as such delivered to two ship masters, who collected fish for defendants at Labrador, a large quantity of fish. 1907 MILLAIS 152 A cod-seine is a long net 102 to 130 fathoms of still smaller mesh, 4 inches in the centre and 5 at both ends. It is coiled in the stem of a small boat, and two men cast it out as the boat is rowed in a circle. The men, by means of a water-glass, see the school of fish before casting their net, and are sometimes very successful at this method of fishing. The cod-seine can be cast several times during the day. 1937 Seafisheries of Nfld 33 A cod-seine is a net about 120 fathoms long and about ten or twelve fathoms deep with ropes and corks at the head and ropes and leads at the foot. It is used to encircle a shoal of fish, and when closed forms a bag net, from which the fish are taken. This type of net is not in use today for cod, but smaller types are used for catching bait fishes. 1953 Nfld & Lab Pilot ii, 354 A shoal bank, with a depth of 15 feet over it, extends half a cable offshore from Cod Seine cove. T 25-64 They used what they called cod-seines. They was a huge affair. Go where the fish were plentiful and they'd shoot the seine. They'd have two boats at this and they'd shoot the seine right round, then pull it in till they'd get it nearly into the beach and draw it up by pulling up the foot ropes. T 82/3-64 A cod-seine is a huge long net with small linnet in the middle, and as you goes on in what they call the arms is bigger linnet [or mesh]. T 75/6-64 When a man would haul the fish with a cod-seine, he'd haul the seine in the stern of his boat. P 9-73 The cod-seine ... was a straight net. It was set from an oar-propelled boat, into the stern of which it had been piled. It was used in shallow water about five or six fathom deep. It was shot (set) in a circular shape, so that the last end overboard could be brought near enough to the first end, so that both ends would be on board for hauling purposes.
   2 Attrib cod-seine boat: see cod-seine skiff.
   [1877] 1898 Nfld Law Reports 147 [The men were] distributed by the defendant, seven with himself to a cod-seine boat, and five under plaintiff ... in a hook-and-line boat. 1936 SMITH 19 We put the bottoms in our traps there, and painted up our trap boat and cod seine boat. T 82/3-64 A cartail boat would come from the cod-seine boat [and deliver the fish to shore].
   cod-seine crew: six or more men engaged to fish with a cod-seine under the direction of a 'seine master.'
   1877 TOCQUE 293 [The catch] of a cod seine crew amounted, for the season ... to 1,200 quintals. 1976 CASHIN 1 My father ... was one of the trap crew or cod seine crew with his father.
   cod-seine fishery: the prosecution of the cod-fishery with seines.
   [1863] 1954 INNIS 397 We, the undersigned memorialists in our time have carried on a hook-and-line fishery for such a great number of years and for want of fish to pay the expense of such fishery were compelled to abandon the same and adopt the cod seine fishery.
   cod-seine fishing: prosecuting the cod-fishery with seines.
   1975 BUTLER 50 At the age of fourteen, he went to sea in a vessel cod-seine fishing at Golden Bay near Cape St Mary's.
   cod-seine skiff: large, undecked fishing boat used to set and haul cod-seines in the coastal fishery; see also SKIFF.
   [1832] 1981 Them Days vi (4), p. 37 Got 2 cod seine skifts in order & took in the seines, bent the new boats sails. 1854 [FEILD] 93 As it would have been impossible to have clambered over the rocks and through the woods in the dark, we were rowed back by six stout fishermen in a cod-seine skiff. 1887 BOND 73 Anyhow, I've got a couple of cod-seine skiffs myself, and there are four other boats from the harbour, and we're going to try ... if we can find any tidings of them. [1900 OLIVER & BURKE] 69 "An Outharbour Merchant Writes for a Wife": He wants a girl... / Can take her seat in a codseine [skiff], / When the fish is on the ground. 1906 LUMSDEN 55 If confined to the Arm and when the day was fine, a punt (in Newfoundland a keeled rowboat of peculiar native construction) and one man sufficed; if out in the bay to Deer Harbor, a 'cod-seine skiff' and half a dozen men might be needed. T 210-65 He used to build those big cod-seine skiffs [for] working cod seine. And this skiff would be around thirty feet long, and probably eight feet wide.

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