40 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



unknown in our waters one hundred years ago. Since that time the bluefisli have 

 been twice absent and were very rare and small at the beginning of this century; 

 now they are large and abundant. The past season surpasses all others in the num- 

 ber of squeteague. 



Butterfish have of late become very plentiful; they are to be seen in immense 

 schools off the coast and they were but little known in the past. The bullseye, that 

 were very plentiful within our memory and totally disappeared for many years, have 

 again returned. The Spanish mackerel, that put in their appearance a few years ago, 

 were before unknown to us and now are getting less and may again leave us altogether. 



The species most diminished in our waters are the anadromous fishes that seek 

 tbe fresh upper waters of our streams. Some of these have been so long absent, or 

 their number so reduced, that we hardly realize they were once abundant here. 

 Among these are the salmon, shad, herring, and bass. 



Since these very radical changes are known to have taken place before the use of 

 improved methods, and inasmuch as the quantity taken by them is exceedingly' small 

 compared to the known destructive agencies, the effect could not be worth consider- 

 ing. Yet this has been made to loom up to the greatest importance, and is made to 

 vitally affect and iuvolve our whole industrial fishery. 



The question whether sea fishes may or may not be affected in numbers by over- 

 fishing has been as definitely settled as it can be, by the most thorough investigations 

 of the past, in this and foreign countries, but the conclusions arrived at fail to be 

 recognized by the local authorities, and many of the States have enacted laws at 

 variance with them. To justify such repressive laws, it should be made to appear that 

 continued free fishing was working an injury to somebody or something, or destructive 

 to the fish, and that the injury affected interests greater than itself. As it is presumed 

 that no injury will be suggested other than the alleged reduction of the fish, we will 

 consider that only. 



That the fish are being reduced in numbers and that the reduction is caused by 

 overfishing are the charges made against net fishing. The reply is, that fish are not 

 being reduced ; that if they were, it must be from natural causes. Statistics show that 

 after fifty-seven years continual use of the purse net in fishing for menhaden the 

 largest catch was made in 1884; and after fifty years continual fishing for scup the 

 Ehode Island shipments of this fish were swelled from 12,514 barrels in 1882 to 

 28,955 barrels in 1802.* The statistics of catches in European waters go to confirm 

 our own, and show rather an increase than diminution. To this we have the added 

 declaration of the most able investigators, both there and here. 



The late Prof. Baird thought in 1871 that it was necessary, in order to preserve 

 the scup, to restrict in some degree the catches of that fish by traps, but in 1877 he 

 stated before the Halifax Commission : 



Very much to ray disgust, I must admit that the next year, even with all the abundance of these 

 engines, the young scup came in quantities so great as toexceed anything the oldest fisherman remem- 

 bered. Since then scup have been very much more abundant than when I wrote my book and report. 



To this the reply comes that statistics are not a true indication of the fisheries; 

 that increased facilities have made it possible to catch even in increased numbers. 

 We reply that if this is good logic for a year or two, how is it when applied to the 



Most of these fish were scup, and the increase probably wholly scup. 



