REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 9 



out around the whole coast. Canners who once put up three thousand 

 cases cannot produce two hundred now." 



''The St. John's (N. F.) 'Trade Review' says: 'There is no use 

 mincing matters. The present deplorable condition of our lobster 

 fishery is due entirely to the cowardice of the government, who are 

 afraid to carry out the law. They have a regulation calling for a 

 defined length of lobster for packing, but they know that this law 

 is broken every day in the year; but, fearing to lose the fisherman's 

 vote, they will not prosecute. Thus it goes on year after year, the 

 available lobsters becoming smaller and smaller, until at present it 

 sometimes takes the meat of thirty or forty fish to fill a one-pound 

 can.'" (" Fishing Gazette," Jan. '09, p. 103.) 



ENFORCEMENT OF LAW. 



That the fishermen, anglers, and the dealers should realize that the 

 sole object of the laws relating to the fisheries is to permanently 

 increase the catch of fish is a fact of the utmost importance. Without 

 the co-operation of the better class of those concerned in the fisheries, 

 the effective enforcement of fisheries laws is, of course, impossible. 

 That the legislation relating to trout, bass, and other game fish and 

 the legislation regulating the lobster fishery have been shown to be 

 decidedly beneficial is now appreciated by the better class of fisher- 

 men and dealers. The most important result of the work done by 

 the Commissioners or deputies is the protection of the honest fisher- 

 men against the ignorant or unscrupulous, and therefore the value of 

 the -s^ork cannot be measured by the number of prosecutions and 

 convictions. 



Two deputies have been employed throughout the year, and four 

 during part of the year. There have been four prosecutions under the 

 lobster law. One case is still pending, and three have settled for the 

 full amounts— $35.00, $115.00, $50.00, respectively. 



The lobster industry at present is one of considerable importance. 

 It is nearly four times as large as it was five j^ears ago, and there is no 



