THE FOOD FISHES 



OF THE AMERICAN ATLANTIC COAST, 



AND THE MARINE NATURAL HISTORY IN ITS RELATIONS TO THEIR INTEGRITY 



AS SUCH. 



'HE importance of the fisheries of the coast to the United States can scarcely be 

 exaggerated. The amount of wholesome food yielded, the pecuniary value of 

 the same in the various products incidental, the numbers of men and boys 

 employed, furnishing profitable occupation, the stimulus to several important 

 industries, as boat-building, with the various allied branches of manufacture, 

 and the little less important item of furnishing a school for the merchant 

 and national marine service. 

 But few years since, the bare suggestion that the abundant supply of food fishes, evidently 

 swarming the ocean, and visiting our coasts in convenient times for their capture, would at any 

 time possibly become reduced to a noticeable condition of scarcity, would have been received as 

 idle speculation. With no thought that the time would ever come when any degree of circum- 

 spection would be necessary with reference to the economy of stock, the fisheries of our coasts 

 have been carried on with a lavish hand, and, since the introduction of " trawls," with a reckless 

 waste of material. There are, however, many legitimate channels through which an enormous 

 and rapidly increasing draught of food fishes find their way to a market and consumption. 

 The construction of railroads into remote parts of the country, and the possibility of using ice 

 for the packing of fish, opens up large additional facilities for their consumption. 



The discovery that fish can be made to supply a valuable oil by boiling and compression, 

 and that the residue as well as the uncooked fish furnish a valuable manure, has constituted 

 an additional source of consumption on an enormous scale. 



It is not strange that such a wholesale consumption of fishes should materially lessen the 

 supply, which, formerly, greatly exceeded the demand. 



The first official notice taken of this state of things, with a view to adopting measures of 

 relief, was instituted by the States of Massachusetts and Rhode Island ; both being especially 

 interested, as the alleged decrease is attributed to the localities on their borders. The cause 

 assigned by the complainants was the use and multiplication of traps and pounds, which cap- 

 tured fish of all kinds in great numbers, and, as was supposed, in larger quantities than needfulj 

 and more than the natural fecundity of the fishes could replace yearly, and especially in view 

 of the fact that these great catches were made during the season of spawning, destroying many 

 fertile fishes, and preventing others from depositing their eggs. 



Petitions were presented to the Legislatures of both these States, in the winter of 1869-70, 

 asking that a law be passed prohibiting the use of fixed apparatus for capturing fishes, and 

 the whole subject came before a committee of the Legislatures. The Massachusetts committee, 

 of which Capt. Nathaniel Atwood, of Provincetown, was chairman, decided that there was no 

 reasonable ground for complaint, and the committee was discharged. On the other hand, the 

 Rhode Island committee, having given much greater personal attention to the subject, came 

 to the conclusion that the prayers of the petitioners were well founded, and they reported in 

 favor of a very stringent law prohibiting the further use of traps or "pounds," excepting 

 within a limited district. In short, there was a radical difference between the findings of the 

 two States' committees. The report of the Rhode Island committee, however, was not acted 



