Southport, Newfoundland and Labrador

By 1956, when Southport received its first road connection with the province's highway system, the population of the community had peaked at approximately 225.

By this time, however, the Labrador fishery had died and most fishing was carried out in local waters for cod, turbot, mackerel, herring, capelin and lobster.

All cod landings were salted and dried on community flakes for marketing before the mid-1950s at which time fishermen increasingly began selling their catches fresh to local merchants and outside buyers.

Its large output of pickled turbot was sold primarily in the lumber camps of Newfoundland, the Maritimes, Quebec and Maine.

In the early 1960s a number of Southport fishermen were amongst the pioneers in the expansion of the groundfish longliner/gillnetter vessel fishery and constructed their own 45'vessels at Southport and also helped pioneer the development of the groundfish gillnet and purse seine pelagic fishery along the province's east/northeast coast for species such as cod, turbot, flounder, capelin, herring and mackerel.