344 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



board the schooner Northern Eagle Thanksgiving-day. She had 

 5,000 [pounds cod they got the day before. There were but 14 fe- 

 male fish. The male fish are not large, average 15 pounds each; the 

 female fish, 20 pounds each. In two of the female fish the spawn was 

 ripe. A few of the male fish were rii^e. One vessel went down to 

 Ipswich Bay with trawls; they did not get enough fish to eat. I will 

 know more about the net-fisliing next week, and will try and keep you 

 posted if I can. It is hard to get an account of all the fish that are 

 caught in nets. I will do the best I can. 



Gloucester, Mass., December 6, 1881. 

 Dear Professor : A few words about the cod gill-nets. When the 

 fish first came on the rocks this fall there was a good school. The hand- 

 liners did well. The netters did well. The fish are scarce now. No fish 

 caught on hand-lines. Some of the boats were out yesterday with frozen 

 herring for bait. Caught no fish. All the fish that are caught are 

 caught in nets. I was down at Eockport last Friday. There were seven 

 boats with codfish. Thursday there were six boats there with codfish. 

 Thirteen boats landed 90,000 pounds of fish last week. All the Ports- 

 mouth boats with nets landed their fish in Portsmouth. The Newbury- 

 port boats with nets land their fish at Newburyport as near as I can learn. 

 There were 145,000 pounds of fish caught in gill-nets last week. If 

 it were not for the gill-nets we could not get fish enough to eat. There 

 were 2G boats with gill-nets last week. They average 22 nets to a boat. 

 All the vessels that were fishing with trawls are getting nets. There will 

 be 30 vessels with nets. My belief in regard to gill-net fishing is, that if all 

 the boats would take their nets up every morning, and set them at night, 

 it would be better for all concerned. I think the nets scare the fish in 

 the day-time. If the nets w^ere up all day the fish would have a chance 

 to come farther inshore. The nets would last longer. The netters will 

 not do it. If they get their nets on a good spot they want to keep them 

 there. The netters don't sell fish in Gloucester. If I could go to Eock- 

 port once a week I could tell very nearly what they get in nets. Tho 

 fish they got last week sold at two dollars a hundred pounds. The fish 

 I looked at in Eockport were two-thirds male fish. 



Gloucester, Mass., December 22, 1881. 



Dear Sir : I will send you last week's report of the cod gill-nets. 

 There were 100,000 pounds of codfish caught in cod gill-nets last week. 

 Fish are scarce. Six boats have taken their nets up in Ipswich Bay 

 and set them off here. The fish off here are most all male fish, good 

 size, averaging 19 pounds each. The trawlers and netters don't agree 

 in Ipswich Bay. The trawlers think the nets scare the fish and stop 

 them from coming in. Twenty-nine vessels have nets. Some of the 

 boats have their nets up for repairs. Fish are sold to-day at 1| cents 



