REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 15 
Mae OMMIOT BTOMIG Ie, cov is ce hele ele 5 a kak Off Cormorant Rock. 
EVOSGME VW TSE craks Sheets. é acelnvs See aoe tne Off Seal Rock. 
Mitrorm SOM OAM te Spe sats 6G aiiettoyns tee She = a ale ddan Off Seal Rock. 
5. OBSERVATIONS TO SHOW THE INFLUENCE, IF ANY, THAT TRAP- 
Fisoinc May Have Upon Line-FIsuHina. 
The influence that the trap-fishing in the lower portion of the 
bay may have upon the abundance of food-fish in the upper por- 
tion of the bay has been an oft-disputed question. The heat of 
argument at any time has been in inverse ratio to the number of 
fish visiting our shores. The general question of the inexhausti- 
bility of sea products has received special attention during the 
past year. W. C. McIntosh, director of the Scottish Marine 
Laboratory at St. Andrews, and for several years member of the 
Fishery Board, has endeavored to show, in his book “The Re- 
sources of the Sea,” that there is little danger of over-fishing, 
that restrictive legislation is unnecessary, and that Nature is 
amply able to maintain an abundant supply, no matter what de- 
mands may be made upon her. Views so entirely at variance 
with the convictions of those who have made fishing a profession, 
so radically different from the opimions of those who occupy posi- 
tions that have enabled them to study the abundance of various 
commercial fishes from year to year, and views that deliberately 
set at nought the legislative provisions of the various maritime 
countries, have naturally been seriously questioned, and the dis- 
cussions have certainly brought many facts to the surface that 
otherwise would have remained unknown. 
So far as our own interests are concerned, there seems to be 
little question that certain of our native fishes have been sadly 
reduced in numbers through neglect and excessive fishing, but 
the abundance of many forms which annually come in from the 
open ocean, and visit our shores for the purpose of breeding, 
appears to remain unaffected. For all that there have been no 
fewer than 100 traps, set at various places along the shores of the 
