156 BULLETIN OF TIIE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



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caught, Mr. Church replied in the Boston Herald that no steamer was 

 being htted to take mackerel for that purpose, and he showed the un- 

 reasonableness of such an expectation by stating that he is offered for 

 the mackerel for food purposes $3 per barrel as they come from the water, 

 while the market value of a barrel of mackerel after being rendered into 

 oil and guano is $1 per barrel. 



The Cape Ann Bulletin took a hopeful view in its issue, July 12. It 

 admitted that schooner fishing for mackerel was endangered, but de- 

 clared that Gloucester fishermen would not be long in fitting out steamers 

 of their own if that method of fishing gave indications of success. As 

 to steamers destroying the menhaden fishing, it said, "This is an open 

 question. The fish have always been more or less variable in their 

 visits to the coast, and it is by no means improbable that the investiga- 

 tions of the United States Fish Commission will discover the haunts 

 of the menhaden and assign reasons for their change of locality. To 

 wholly destroy any variety of fish by the hand of man is declared by 

 competent authority to be practically impossible, since what is taken 

 from them is but a drop in the bucket compared with what are destroyed 

 by other means." This accords with Mr. Church's defense, in which he 

 says, " It is a fact well known to all who have taken the pains to study 

 the history of fish that live and multiply in the sea, that they have 

 periods of being plenty and scarce, and that man, in his puny efforts 

 of capture, is as nothing in comparison with the destruction by blue- 

 fish, sharks, bonitas, and other fish of prey. Prof. Baird estimates that 

 the blue-fish in four months destroy on the coast of New England 

 150,000,000 barrels of fish. When we add to the above the destruction 

 by sharks, whales, etc., and add to that the whole coast from Maine to 

 Mexico, and take twelve mouths' destruction instead of four, we see 

 that man's influence is about the same as a fly's would be in trying to 

 stop the steamer Bristol's engine by lighting on the end of the walking- 

 beam when it was running wide open, with all the steam the law allowed." 



Concerning the use of steamers, Mr. Clark, writing from Gloucester, 

 .says : " Gloucester mackerel men do insist that the ordinary use of the 

 purse-seine does not appreciably decrease the stock of fish. Capt. Sol. 

 Jacobs, the famous mackerel-catcher, says that one steamer can catch 

 as many fish as ten sailing vessels ; that steamers cannot make a 

 business of carrying fresh fish to market, for lack of ice-houses and 

 means of keeping fish fresh enough for food. If bailed iuto the hold 

 the lish would be fit for nothing but guano on reaching port. Steamers 

 have not the facilities for carrying barrels and salt, nor deck room to 

 use in splitting, salting, aud packing fish. Being entirely unfit for pre- 

 serving mackerel, all that remains is to carry them to oil and guano 

 factories. The time required to dress mackerel is at present a safe- 

 guard against an over-catch; but were all hands to pitch in and see 

 how many fish could be scooped up, regardless of their preservation, it 

 is probable that the business would soon become a thing of the past. 



