BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



A.— INTEODUCTIOX. 



Although gill-nets have long been used in Norway as an apparatus 

 for the capture of cod, and are considered quite indispensable by the 

 fishermen of that country, they have never until recently been intro- 

 duced into the United States. In 1878 Prof. Spencer F. Baird, Com- 

 missioner of Fisheries, knowing how profitably these were employed by 

 the Norwegian fishermen, decided to make exi)eriments with them at 

 Cape Ann, with a view to their introduction among the cod-fishermen 

 of this country. He accordingly secured a set of the Norwegian nets, 

 which were sent to Gloucester and there tested by the employes of the 

 Commission. 



Experiments were made when the winter school of cod were on the 

 shore grounds, but the results obtained were not entirely satisfactory, 

 owing chiefly to the fact that the nets were found far too frail for the 

 large cod which frequent our coast in winter. This was apparent from 

 the numerous holes in the nets, which indicated plainly that large fish 

 had torn their way through, none being retained excepting those that 

 had become completely rolled up in the twine. The current also swept 

 them afoul of the rocky bottom, which injured them still more, so that 

 they were soon rendered nearly unfit for use. The nets were invariably 

 in bad order when hauled from the water, but even under such unfavor- 

 able circumstances nearly a thousand pounds were caught on one occa- 

 sion. This seemed to indicate that nets of sufiicient strength might be 

 used to good advantage, at least on some of the smoother fishing grounds, 

 along the coast and on the outer banks. 



These preliminary trials, therefore, having demonstrated that nets 

 could be used to good advantage in the American cod-fisheries, Professor 

 Baird availed himself of the first chance that offered for obtaining definite 

 knowledge of the methods of netting cod in Norway, with the intention 

 of disseminating this information among American cod-fishermen. 



The opening of the International Fishery Exhibition at Berlin, Ger- 

 many, in the spring of 1880, presented a favorable opportunity for ac- 

 complishing this purpose. Professor Baird having appointed the writer 

 as one of the commission to attend the exhibition on the staff of Prof. G. 

 Brown Goode, desired that a careful study should be made by him of 

 the foreign methods of deep-sea fishery as represented at the exhibi- 

 tion. The method of capturing cod with gill-nets, as practiced by the 

 Norwegian fishermen, was mentioned as a subject which should receive 

 especial consideration, and it was suggested that it might even be de- 

 sirable to visit Norway, so that the practical operation of this fishery 

 might be observed. 



