36 COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



gaged in the business, to the extensive beam trawling during the fall 

 and winter. The beam trawlers deny the charge, stating that the 

 fish caught in their trawls are not the ones which make up the spring 

 run. While undoubtedly beam trawling has to some extent injured 

 the spring fyke netting, it cannot be held responsible for the entire 

 decline. Excessive fishing is the basis for this decrease, as anyone 

 can realize who has observed the immense number and close proximity 

 of fyke nets set along the entire shore during the early spring. 



Your Commission has during the past year successfully solved one 

 of the greatest drawbacks to artificially propagating the flatfish. It 

 is now possible for the first time to rear them in numbers through the 

 transition period when they leave the vertical mode of swimming 

 and become true flatfish. In the future we hope to give much atten- 

 tion to the artificial propagation of this species. 



BEAM TRAWLING. 



While this branch of the fisheries has not yielded as good returns 

 as in the previous year, the season can by no means be called a failure. 

 Considerable fish and fair prices have been obtained. Beam trawling 

 this past year has been most extensively carried on in the East 

 Passage of Narragansett Bay near Gould Island. 



As has been stated in the preceding section, much injury to the 

 fisheries has been laid at the door of the beam trawlers. They have 

 denied much of it. Your Commission is investigating the matter 

 and will soon have sufficient data to arrive at definite conclusions. 

 We beg to say that our tendency in the investigation of beam trawl- 

 ing, as we aim to do in investigations of all branches of the fisheries, 

 is to favor the industry. Regulations are necessary, however, in 

 order to prevent wholesale and unwarranted destruction of the con- 

 flicting fisheries. Your Commission, while not desiring to foster 

 anything which may be injurious to our fisheries, at the same time 

 believes on general grounds that one branch of the fisheries has as 

 much right to exist as any other branch. What we need is healthy 

 regulation. 



