504 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [May, 



THE FISHES OF NANTUCKET. 



BY DR. BENJAMIN SHARP AND HENRY W. FOWLER. 



Fish are taken in Nantucket by hand-lines, trolling, litie-trawls, 

 drift- and set-nets and pounds or traps. Hand-lining is employed for 

 scup, plaice, flatfish, cod, haddock, and in times past for dogfish and 

 halibut. The line-trawls are used in the spring and fall for cod and 

 haddock, drift-nets in the spring for mackerel, set-nets in the summer 

 and fall for bluefish and bonito. The two poimds fixed in water of 

 about 4 fathoms are inside, that is on the west of Great Point, about 

 midway between the Koskata U. S. Life Saving Station and Great 

 Point Lighthouse. These pounds are the property of the Petrel Fishing 

 Company, which employs a small steamer and a sailboat. Every 

 species of commercial fish found about the island has been taken in 

 the pound, and many others mentioned in this list. Bluefish are very 

 rarely found in them. During the spring of the year the steamer 

 Petrel is employed drifting for mackerel off the south side of the islands 

 of Nantucket and Tuckernuck. During the summer she steams around 

 the island for bluefish and an occasional trip is made for swordfish, 

 when she cruises some 30 or 40 miles from the land. The bluefish are 

 taken by sweeping nets around a school of fish. This is done by dories 

 which put out from the steamer when a school is discovered. 



The steamer Waquoit is also employed in fishing for mackerel, sword- 

 fish and bluefish. This steamer and the Petrel are the only two steam 

 fishing-boats owned in Nantucket. 



The line-trawls are used in the spring and fall in the cod and haddock 

 fisheries. These are set from dories which put out from the beaches 

 on the south and east sides of the island when the weather permits, 

 and on returning are hauled up out of the surf to a safe place and the 

 fish carted to town. 



At Quidnet there are a number of houses where the Portuguese salt 

 codfish. Salting and drying codfish is also carried on by a number 

 of fishermen from the Cape. They have established a small village on 

 Coatuc ("New Chatham"), and in catboats sail out of the "opening" 

 at the head of the harbor and fish off the eastern side of the island. 



A gasoline-power boat, the San Antonio, has recently been built by 



