CAI.TPORNIA PMSH AND GAME. i 



deep. To remove ;iny iinev(Mi strain on the nets and to prevent, their 

 being carried away ))y tlie sAvift tide, a heavy anchor or stake is ])laced 

 about fifty feet out from eacli end of the row of stakes and in line with 

 them, from whieli runs a heavy line which is tied with a clove hitch to 

 the center of each of the brails. By anchoring this heavy line in line 

 Avith the stakes and sutlficiently far out, the arrangement does not inter- 

 fere Avith lifting the brails and nets to the surface of the Avater Avhen 

 the catch is to be removed just before the slack water at the end of the 

 tide. Besides the heavy anchor line running from brail to brail, 

 there is another and lighter one, the buoy line, Avhich facilitates in 

 lifting the nets. This line, Avlien the nets are set in fishing position, 

 extends from a floating buo.y at one end of the string of nets to the 

 first or end brail, to Avhich it is tied by a bight about a foot from its 

 top. From thence it runs to each brail in succession until the last 

 brail at the end of the string of nets is reached, from whence it extends 

 up to another buoy on the surface of the water. This buoy line is in 

 place only AA'hen the nets are set. The nets are fastened to the brails 



V\g. 3. Sorting and drying young fish obtained from shrimp nets, Point San Pedro, 1S97. 

 Shrimp fishing endangers the fisheries bv destroying young fish. Photographs by 



N. B. Scofield. 



and the buoy line is attached just after the turn of the tide before the 

 current has become swift. The force of the current sAvings the series 

 of nets doAvn onto the bottom Avhere they are held by the brail lines 

 to the row of stakes, reinforced by the heavy anchor line. Here they 

 are left during the entire tide, the time varying from four to eight 

 hours, with their mouths open against the tide Avhile the current carries 

 the shrimps and young fish into them. With this manner of fastening 

 the nets they can be used on either a flood or ebb tide. 



When the nets are to be lifted at the end of the tide after the force of 

 the current has slackened sufficiently, an end of the buoy line is taken 

 at one of the buoys, passed through the notch in the bow^ post of the 

 boat and thence carried back to the AAdndlass, AA^here it is reeled in by 

 one man, thus bringing the first brail to the surface and lifting the net 

 with it. The other members of the crew detach thq net and the buoy 

 line from the brail Avhile the man at the Avindlass reels up the next 

 ])rail. Thus the nets are detached in succession, the catch being emptied 

 into the shrimp locker and the nets placed in the net locker. The 



