132 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



(more than seven-eightlis of this in or about the approaches to the Penobscot 

 Eiver), while as recently as 1905 the catch for Maine was more than 86,000 pounds 

 (of this 74,000 pounds, or 6,378 fish, were from the Penobscot), but by 1919 the 

 Maine catch had fallen to little more than 20,000 pounds with only odd fish taken 

 off Massachusetts. As 70 to 90 per cent of the Maine catch comes from Penobscot 

 River or Bay, the following table of salmon caught there since 1905 is pertinent: ^^ 



On the other hand, there are actually more salmon to-day in the Canadian 

 waters of the Gulf than there were 30 years ago, thanks to wise measures of con- 

 servation such as limiting netting at the mouths of the rivers and keeping them 

 free of access by fishways at the dams; so much so, indeed, that it is safe to set the 

 total yearly catch for the whole Gulf as 50 per cent larger now than during the 

 period about 1890, as appears from the following statistics: 



1 The Canadian and United States returns for 1889 are directly comparable, both being for the calendar year, but the Canadian 

 returns for 1916-17 were for the fiscal year Mar. 31 to Mar. 31. 

 ' The Canadian catch was larger the year previous. 

 3 Approximate. 



A catch of 250,000 to 300,000 pounds (about 25,000 to 30,000 fish) may now be 

 expected annually along the Canadian shores and in the Canadian rivers of the 

 Gulf; in New England waters less than 20,000 pounds. Fishery by modern methods 

 no doubt would have yielded a very much larger total in past times when the fish 

 ran in all the New England rivers. 



Although no salmon now spawn south of the Penobscot a few are still taken every 

 S limm er in the weirs in the Massachusetts Bay region. Up to about 1895 Cape 

 Cod Bay annually yielded a number of large fish weighing up to 25 pounds or more, 

 as well as many young smolts of about 6 inches (p. 133), with 1892 as a particularly 

 productive year. A few fish were taken yearly about Cape Ann, also, and in Cape 

 Cod Bay until about 1908. Thereafter the Massachusetts catch fell practically to 

 nil. In some seasons an odd fish or two was reported from one place or another in 

 the Massachusetts Bay region, other years none at all," imtil 1917 when perhaps 

 150 small salmon of from 2 to 5 pounds were caught by the mackerel gill-netters in 

 Ipswich Bay and off Thachers Island during November and early December. 



" Radcliffe, 1921, p. 146. 



" For further data on salmon in Massachusetts waters see the annual reports of the Massachusetts commissioners since 1902. 



