When starting a settlement, the colonists had to think about their own survival, and how to make the colony a success. This meant colonists had to find a way of making money. John Cabot never found the Northwest Passage, but during his explorations he stumbled across something else that could make a lot of money. He found an area of the Atlantic Ocean southeast of Newfoundland rich with a valuable natural resource: fish.
In parts of Europe, people had fished so much that there were less fish to catch. This made fish more valuable. Off the coast of Newfoundland, there were plentiful amount of cod, lobster, redfish, herring, and salmon. The waters were so crowded with fish that sailors could drop baskets over the sides of their ships and bring them up full. Colonists made a lot of money shipping dried fish back to Europe.