66 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE 



When we consider this vast iiidustrj-, so necessary to the welfare of the State, a 

 business employing thousands of our citizens, w^hich amounts to so great an annual 

 sum and supplies our population with an unsurpassed food product, we cannot 

 wonder that this better system has developed, and the experience of the past leads 

 us to look forward to increased progress and greater improvements. 



The tomcod planted in Jamaica Bay during the season of 1900 have thriven and 

 are now to be found all over the bay. Hundreds of these fish were cast upon the 

 beach during the severe storm which occurred on Saturday, November 30, 1901, 

 and were gathered up by fishermen residing in the vicinity. 



Under section 1 14 of the Forest, Fish and Game Laws, the boards of supervisors 

 of Queens, Nassau and Suffolk Counties are given power to pass laws regulating and 

 controlling the taking of fish and shellfish in the salt waters of such counties. This 

 power has from time to time been availed of in these counties, resulting in the 

 passage of numerous laws, imperfectly published and of doubtful authority. Com- 

 munication is now being had with these official boards for the purpose of ascertain- 

 ing which of these laws should be preserved with a view to having them embodied 

 in the statute law of the State. 



During the past summer certain newspapers have devoted considerable space to 

 the net fisheries of Great South Bay, strongly intimating, though not actually 

 asserting, that these fisheries are in violation of the Forest, Fish and Game Laws. 

 It was said that the number of bluefish have annually decreased until the fishing in 

 the bay is almost destroyed, that " Bluefishing in Great South Bay has been ruined 

 by the net. Fifteen years ago this was the finest body of water in the world for 

 fishing." The Superintendent has made several visits to Great South Bay for the 

 purpose of investigating this alleged condition and has conversed with boatmen, 

 whose livelihood depends upon taking out parties of anglers, and with residents of 

 the localit}' representing both sides of the controversy. As a result it has been 

 ascertained that the pound-nets are not placed in the main channels of the bay, that 

 there is no obstruction or hindrance in these main channels to the entrance of fish 

 from the ocean, that the pound-nets are placed in the minor channels and shoal 

 waters of the bay, and that bluefishing by hook and line has not been better in any 

 season during the past fifteen years than in the season of 1901, anglers having had 

 no difficulty in securing well-filled baskets. 



While it appeared that the nets might interfere to a certain e.xtent with the 

 navigation of the bay by small yachts and sailing boats, it was asserted, on the 

 other hand, that at night, in foggy weather, the lights maintained upon the pounds 

 were of great assistance to navigation. The question of nas'igation is without the 



