DECREASE OF FOOD-FISHES IN AMERICAN WATERS. 31 



Pound nets. — Another device, injurious in the highest degree to food-fish plenti- 

 fulness along the seacoast, is the pound net, which of late years has assumed most 

 formidable proportions and which threatens to become still more destructive. Not 

 only have tbose nets increased immensely in size, but they have multiplied to an extent 

 that certainly calls for legislative interference. 



These destroyers of edible fish are placed as early as April and, as they extend 

 a long distance into the sea, intercept tens of thousands of migratory fishes on their 

 way northward. Most of the captures are of spawning fishes, and are mainly sea 

 bass and squeteague, though many other varieties are taken. The nets are continued 

 in position until fall, when the young fish spawned northward of them commence 

 their southward journey. As those young fish generally keep near the shore, they 

 become the victims of the nets, in which they perish by hundreds of thousands — it 

 would not be exaggeration to say millions. That some concentrated and determined 

 effort has not been made to either define the seasons when they can be employed or, 

 what would seem to be more advisable, forbid their use entirely, is surprising. They 

 exceed menhaden fishing in their injurious effects upon edible-fish life. The damage 

 to the edible-fish supply from Sandy Hook to Albemarle Sound has become so marked 

 that a combined effort is about to be made to induce Congressional legislation that 

 will afford the much-needed relief. 



SOl'THEUN COASTS. 



Southern coast waters have, for several reasons, suffered less than Northern. Popu- 

 lation is comparatively sparse and consequently the home-market demand for fish is 

 limited; the generally prevailing heat of the weather, the scarcity of ice for packing 

 purposes, and the lack of sufficiently rapid transportation to the great city markets 

 of the North discourage extensive fishing operations. Commercial fishing is there- 

 fore an industry restricted to a few mouths of each year, and necessarily not of great 

 extent nor specially injurious to the natural resources. 



PACIFIC COAST. 



The marvelous abundance of salmon on the Pacific coast naturally led to the 

 impression that the supply was inexhaustible. This belief, coupled with their great 

 commercial value and the comparative ease with which they were taken, immediately 

 attracted the attention of capitalists. Fisheries were established, canneries on a large 

 scale erected, and the work of destruction began. For a number of years the idea of 

 inexhaustibility was still entertained, but the inroads made upon the immense schools 

 that periodically came from the sea to do their spawning in the fresh waters made it 

 apparent that unless some restrictions were placed upon fishing operations, and close 

 seasons ordered and respected, the time would come when salmon plentifulness would 

 cease. Restrictive laws have been enacted in the States and Territories of the coast, 

 from California northward, but, notwithstanding, each succeeding season clearly 

 demonstrates a decrease, which, with the continued enormous canning and packing 

 operations, can not fail in the course of years to so lessen production as to render the 

 maintenance of these industries upon their present gigantic scale impracticable. 



In view of what has beeu presented, there is no such thing as successful disputa- 

 tion of the fact that from the several causes to which reference has been made, and 



