is perhaps mainly a haddock ground.

Nantucket Shoals (South Shoal). This name is applied to the fishing
ground about Nantucket Lightship, which marks the Old South Shoal and
the New South Shoal, the two making a continuous reef of irregular form
some 10 to 12 miles in length and from 1 to 3 miles wide. The northern
end of this lies about 12 miles S. by E. from Sankaty Head (the Old
South Shoal), and the southern extremity of the New South Shoal reaches
to about 20 miles S. 1/2 E. from the same point. The fishing ground lies
mostly to the S. of these shoals and about the lightship, where otter
trawling is carried on in all directions from the ship except from N. to
NE., where lie the vessels sunk by the German submarine in the late war.
This fishery is also carried on WNW. from the ship for a distance of 40
miles, even into 7 fathom depths near Muskeget Inlet.

Elsewhere depths average from 13 to 18 fathoms on the inner parts of the
grounds, whence they slope away gradually from the shore soundings into
50, 80, or even more on the outer edge, where the ground falls away
rapidly into the deeps. For the most part this area has a bottom of
sand, but there are small stretches of coarse gravel, broken shells,
pebbles, and a few muddy spots.

Within comparatively recent years this ground has been much used by the
otter trawlers, which type of craft has developed a productive fishery
here, which is being operated in steadily increasing volume and takes a
catch that is predominantly of haddock.

The proportion of cod taken here by these vessels is very small, even
smaller than that from other grounds fished by the otter-trawl method.
Pollock and hake, too, make a small item in the fares from the
neighborhood of the South Shoal. In the average otter-trawl fare haddock
makes up the greater part of the catch because, as a rule, this type of
gear is operated mostly on the smooth, sandy bottom which this species
prefers. The otter-trawl fishery here is at its best from early May
through June, July, and the first halt of August. Few trips are reported
from this ground at other seasons. Perhaps the haddock leaves the shoal
grounds here earlier than when it moves out of the same depths in The
Channel.

The early fishing for the swordfish generally takes place in this
vicinity, and in normal seasons mackerel are found here in abundance
from May 15 to August, and, as is the custom with this uncertain fish,
it may appear here again