BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 463 



115 WHY THE SIZE OF MESH IN MENHADEN SEINES SHOUED NOT 



BE RESTRICTED. 



By DAMSEL, T. CHURCH. 



[From a letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 



I do not believe that it is possible for man to make a perceptible 

 decrease in sea fish. Hence we shall catch all we can of any size we 

 can get hold of. By observation we know that, during ninety days of 

 the year 1880, 30,000,000 barrels of menhaden were destroyed by blue- 

 fish and weakfish in Narragansett Bay, and in a tract of water oidy 12 

 miles long by 2 miles wide. As the total catch with purse seines is less 

 than 3,000,000 barrels a year, it seems foolish to limit free fishing. If 

 we are by law compelled to use 2^-inch seines, it is possible to stop every 

 factory south of Montauk for years together. A large body of small 

 menhaden are now on the coast, between Sandy Hook and the Dela- 

 ware, giving us another illustration that fish go and come without any 

 apparent cause. For the last three years the Virginians have been 

 taking large amounts of small menhaden. Last fall we were in the 

 Virginia waters fishing, and it was the universal testimony that there 

 was then the largest crop of small menhaden ever known. I suppose 

 this crop off the Delaware and Jersey is a part of the overflow, for, in 

 my opinion, the Chesapeake Bay could not hold them after they had 

 grown to full size. 



From a selfish point of view, it would be for the interest of our firms 

 to have the mesh restricted, and many fishermen have urged this upon 

 me; but I have taken the opposite ground because I believe more men- 

 haden are destroyed in one hour by fish than are destroyed by man in 

 a year. 



Tiverton, R. I., August 18, 1882. 



116.-THE INJURIOUS EFFECT OF MENHADEN STEAMERS UPON 



THE FOOD FISHERIES. 



By JOHN O. BABBITT. 



[From letter to Prof. S- F. Baird.] 



Since the menhaden steamers have come into* general use it gives 

 those fishermen much advantage over the fish, with no law to protect 

 the latter. It has nearly annihilated the fish from the coasts of Maine, 

 New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. If the fishermen 

 begin next spring where they left off on the Jersey coast, judging from 

 the decrease of the past four years, there will be but few fish seen on the 



