BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 97 



Vol. VI, T¥o. 7. Washington, ». €. June 13, 1 8l§6. 



34.— TOE PRESERVATIOIV OF NETS." 



If nets and other fishing apparatus go to ruin in a short time, when 

 not exposed to powerful external influences, the reason for this must be 

 sought partly in the quantity of animal matter which adheres to the 

 apparatus and which decays under certain conditions of temperature, 

 and partly in the myriads of infusoria which penetrate among the fibers 

 and there deposit their eggs. From these eggs, during summer, a new 

 generation of infusoria is developed, which again in their turn lay eggs, 

 and so forth. Not only is the fiber weakened by its component parts 

 entering new chemical combinations, but portions of it certainly also 

 serve as food for the infusoria. The looser the thread, the easier will 

 they find their way into it, and the sooner will it be destroyed. With 

 the view to preserve their nets, the fishermen use every opportunity to 

 dry them ; and for this purpose a place should be selected which is 

 shady, and where there is a strong current of air. 



Everybody knows that fishing apparatus should never be stored 

 away when wet. If necessity compels one to do this, salt is sprinkled 

 between every layer, or sea-water is poured over them. I^ets (especially 

 herring-nets and nets used during summer) should be cleaned often, or 

 soaked in birch lye, or, as is done in IS'ova Scotia, in a decoction of pine 

 or spruce bark. During the fishing season the nets in Nova Scotia are 

 cleaned every week, being laid in the decoction Saturday night, and 

 remaining in it till Monday morning. Apparatus can thus be preserved 

 by killing the animalcules which attack the material of which the nets 

 are made ; but they may also be prepared in such a manner as to resist 

 these attacks to a certain degree. 



The simplest method of preserving nets consists in smoking them; 

 thereby they become penetrated with creosote, whose antiseptic quali- 

 ties are well known. If the smoking is repeated from time to time, this 

 method of preserving nets, in spite of its simplicity, is not to be de- 

 spised. t 



Hot coal-tar will certainly prevent the nets from decaying during use, 

 but it makes them hard and stiff, and the twine becomes brittle at the 

 knots and is apt to break. 



Hot wood-tar or coal-tar thinned with oil of turpentine also makes the 

 nets stiff and brittle. The same is the case with boiled linseed-oil. | 



Charcoal-tar is apt to "burn" the nets. 



* "Bevarinrj af Gam." From the Norsk Fiskeritidende, Vol. V, No. 2, Bergen, April, 

 188G. Translated from the Danish by Heumax Jacobson. 

 tMittlieilungen cles Deutsclien Fischerei-Vereins. Berlin, 1885. 

 t Fishing Gazette, March, 1884. 



Bull. U. S. P. C, 86 7 



