57 



Leased. — The popular and easy expedient of leasing the 

 fishery from year to year to the highest bidder has placed a 

 premium upon its exploitation and has directly encouraged 

 overfishing. Naturally the purchaser, uncertain of obtaining 

 the fishery for the following years, would severely drain its re- 

 sources. Yet this method of operation has been used by the 

 majority of towns for years, merely because it had become a 

 custom and was the easiest way of dismissing the problem. 

 The minimum period of a lease should be five years, a method 

 of procedure which has been adopted only by a few towns in 

 recent years. 



Sale. ■ — Where fisheries have been artificially created by pri- 

 vate companies under legislative acts the town has no powers. 

 In cases such as Weymouth, where the town had sold its fishery, 

 its responsibility did not cease, and it should have made the 

 Weymouth Iron Company fulfill the provisions stipulated in 

 the sale until it was again acquired by the town. 



Joint Fisheries. — Where several towns are interested in the 

 same fishery it is usually regulated by a joint committee. Com- 

 promises resulting from conflicting interests have not always 

 worked for the best interests of the fishery, for example, by 

 increasing the number of fishing days on a river, thus giving 

 the alewives practically no free time to reach their spawning 

 grounds. 



