'2()2 jiKi'oirr of commissioner of pish and fisheries. 



lias had on the herring fishery of Maine and on the development in 

 certain places of an important bait fishery to supply the needs of 

 American vessels : 



since 18S5 the liening lishery of Maine lias undergone a notieealile increase, which 

 has been ehielly duo to the abrogation of the Washington treaty. The manufactur- 

 ing enterprises connected with the canning of hibsters, the canning and smoking of 

 herring, etc., have steadily increased, and new life and new capital have been ]>ut 

 into the industry to meet the demand for larger supjilies of raw materials, among 

 which herring rank first iu quantity and importance. The increase in the number 

 of weirs and other a]ti>lianccs of capture has been more marked each year, and the 

 growth and extension westward of the fishery and the dependent shore industries 

 has been one of the most noteworthy features of the fisheries of this State during the 

 ])ast decade. 



An increase in the herring weir lisherics has iu most localities been attended with 

 a corresponding increase in the smoked-herring business, but in the region of Mount 

 Desert Island a most interesting and important exception to this rule is to be 

 observed, duo to its favorable location as a baiting rendezvous for the bank cod fish- 

 ermen of both Maine and Massachusetts. In this vicinity the increase in the number 

 of herring weirs has had no appreciable effect on the smoking of herring, the smoke- 

 houses being more neglected than ever before. This condition is due to the circum- 

 stance that herring can be sold fresli for bait at better prices than would result from 

 smoking them. The demand for bait in this section is now so constant and so great 

 that the weir fishermen have not been able to meet it, and an extensive herring 

 ILshery with gill nets has been inaugnrated within the past three years to supplement 

 the weir fishery. At the Cranberry Isles and also in the vicinity of Southwest 

 Harbor and Bar Harbor large numbers of bank and shore vessels are baited each year, 

 and the jnactice of taking bait in this vicinity is annually becoming more pojnilar 

 and of increasing importance to the deep-sea fisheries. Prior to the building of 

 weiis there was little or no baiting done here, and vesscds were obliged to resort to 

 more distant places and often had to go to the provinces at great loss of time. 



The marked effect which the expiration of the reciprocity treaty with Canada has 

 had on the development of the fisheries and fishery industries of the entire eastern 

 coast of Maine has been nowhere more noticeable than in the increased facilities 

 afforded American vessels to procure an abundant supply of bait in home ports 

 through the building of brush weirs. 



Eantwanl movetnent of menhaden. — -One of the most i)rominent and 

 interesting features of the New England fisheries during the decade 

 terminating in 18S8 Avas the practically comi»lete absence of meiihaden 

 from tlie Gulf of Maine, where they had previously resorted in enor- 

 mous bodies and supported an industry of great imiiortance. This fail- 

 ure of the menhaden to appear within such a large area was one of the 

 nidst rcinarkalile variations in the movements of our Atlantic coast 

 fishes that has been recorded, and was much more noteworthy, although 

 less important, than the present scarcity of mackerel. In 1888 large 

 schools of menhaden were found east of Cape (^od, considerable num- 

 bei-s being taken as far east as Frenchman Bay, Maine. The next 

 season there was a return of the fish to the Maine coast in s(;hools fully 

 as large and numerous as had ever before been observed. The fishery, 

 w hieli was begun on a limited scale in 1888, was greatly augmented, 

 and many vessels from Khode Island and other States found it more 

 profitable to fish in Maine waters during a part of the season, which 



