DECREASE OF FOOD-FISHES IN AMERICAN WATERS. 25 



Four or rive hundred, aggregating nearly as many pounds, were not an unusual single 

 day's catch for two hook-and-line fishermen, but the fyke was introduced by the com- 

 mercial fisherman, and to-day the man is lucky who succeeds in capturing two or three 

 dozen of less than half a pound weight each. The glory of Betterton has departed. 



A natural supposition would be, that men who earn their living by fishing would, 

 on the score of self-interest alone, endeavor by all means in their power to prevent 

 the fish products of the waters in which they ply their vocation from decrease. 

 Generally speaking, the reverse of this is the case. In the immediate vicinity of the 

 Betterton waters, perch used to be taken in small-meshed seines in large quantities, 

 thousands of other fish, and especially young perch of unsalable size, being captured 

 with them. Instead of being returned to the water, as they should and readily could 

 have been, those unmerchantable fish were dumped upon the beach to die; furnishing 

 tempting feasts from day to day to hundreds of hungry buzzards. These facts are 

 given for the purpose of illustrating some of the many fish-exterminating methods 

 practiced in thousands of places. 



Explosives. — Another illegal, unnatural, and most indefensible method of killing 

 fish is by the use of explosives, such as dynamite, giant power, etc. The placing and 

 exploding of a dynamite cartridge in a pool of water means not only the killing of 

 the larger fish, but not unfrequently of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of smaller 

 ones. The dead fish rise to the surface, the larger ones being secured while the much 

 greater number of smaller ones are borne away by the current. This reprehensible 

 way of killing fish receives special mention in the restrictive laws of nearly every 

 State; but dynamite cartridges and other explosives are so readily obtained now, so 

 easily hidden from observation, and require such little preparation for their illicit use, 

 that it is almost impossible to detect the guilty parties; therefore their employment 

 for fish-killing purposes is much greater than is generally supposed. 



The foregoing are some of the leading causes of the decrease of food-fishes in 

 American fresh waters. There are numerous others of minor importance individ- 

 ually, but in their aggregate producing a vast amount of injury to fish life. Among 

 them may be named the little respect which is paid by hook-and-line fishermen to 

 the "close times" — the season when the fishes to which they specifically apply do 

 their spawning. It is a fact, not as generally understood as it should be, that fishes 

 of certain kinds, possibly all, when in a gravid condition take the bait much more 

 readily than at any other period, and much more readily than the males. An adult 

 female taken at such a time means the absolute destruction of from five hundred to 

 one thousand germs of fish life; in some varieties, many more. How many gravid 

 fish are taken every year can not of course be even conjectured, but from the number 

 of poachers the total must run into a great many hundreds of thousands. This is 

 the more to be deplored for the reason that the killed germs would have been nat- 

 urally spawned and, through the instinct of the parent fishes, in localities better 

 suited to the wants of the young fish and where they would have better protection 

 and thrive better than artificially propagated fry, planted in waters assumed to be 

 suitable, but which in fact may be the least adapted to their safety and growth. 



The "pot hunter" is another deadly enemy to fish increase, as he counts all as 

 fish his hook captures, whether they be fingerlings or pound weights. Instead of 

 returning to the waters the small and worthless fish, he gives them a place in his creel 

 in order that the count of his catch may be swelled to its utmost proportions. Such 



