156 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



These fish, the common menhaden of the coast, have been caught for 

 use as bait in the cod-fishery from the earliest times; and at first the 

 new branch of industry, in which such immense quantities are con- 

 sumed, was viewed by the old fishermen with no little suspicion, as 

 likely to interfere with the important and older branch of the fishing 

 business by depriving them of bait. Some riots were at least threat- 

 ened, and one oil factory was actually destroyed, as was believed, by the 

 old fishermen, or at their instigation ; but the opposition has ceased, and 

 the general opinion seems to be that it is best to foster such an extensive 

 branch of business, giving profitable employment for a part of the 

 season, as this does, to so many men, even though it may be attended 

 by some disadvantages, which in the end may prove more imaginary 



than real.* 



The ijresent as^pects of the conflict in Maine. 



217. In 1877 and 1878 a determined effort was made by the Maine line- 

 fishermen to secure the passage of a legislative act forbidding the use 

 of seines near the shores. Their claim was that the present methods 

 employed in the fishery interfered with their legitimate privilege of 

 catching menhaden for bait, and that their tendency was to drive away 

 all other fishes as well, and to destroy the fisheries. 



To this movement the manufacturers made strenuous opposition, 

 claiming that the menhaden fishery is practically inexhaustible; that the 

 habits of the species have not been changed by the fishery, and that so 

 far from making it difficult to obtain bait the large fishery made it 

 easier, capturing it in great masses and selling it to the fishermen in any 

 desired quantity cheaper than they could obtain it for themselves. Mr. 

 Maddock's report, which has frequently been mentioned, was prepared 

 at the wish of the Maine manufacturers as an argument to be presented 

 to the legislature on their behalf. All the questions involved have been 

 elsewhere discussed. It seems very unlikely that any legislature will at 

 present interfere with so extensive an interest as that of the menhaden 

 oil manufacturers.! 



40. — Menhaden bait as an article of commerce, and the con- 

 sideration OF ITS VALUE BY THE HALIFAX COMMISSION OF 



1877. 



The export of bait to the Dominion. 



218. In the section relating to the value of the menhaden as a bait- 

 fish (paragraphs 186-190), allusion was made to its extensive exporta- 

 tion for use in the fisheries of the Dominion of Canada. I 



The evidence of several witnesses was quoted to prove that meuha-i 



* A History of the Towns of Bristol and Bremen in the State of Maine, including the 

 Pemaquid Settlement. By John Johnston, LL. D., a native of Bristol, and Professor 

 Emeritus of Natural Science in the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., and 

 Cor. Mem. of the Maine Historical Society. Albany, N. Y. Joel Munsell. 1873. 8vo. 

 pp. 524. p. 460. 



t See paragraph 15G. 



