XXXVI EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



may result in loss rather than gain. Such was the feeling of Capt. 

 George H. Martin, master of the Northern Eagle, of Gloucester, during 

 the fall of 1880. For several years he had been engaged in the shore 

 cod-iishery during the winter, but the prospect of getting sperling 

 (small herring that are used for baitj appeared so uncertain that he 

 hesitated about fitting out. His father, an employe of the Commission, 

 and also an old fishermap, suggested gill-nets as a means of solving the 

 problem. Together with several of his crew he visited the station of 

 the Commission at Gloucester and examined the nets. 



Before starting out on his first trip, he conferred with Capt. J. W. Col- 

 lins, who had studied the Norwegian methods at Berlin. This resulted 

 in his devising a plan whereby one man is enabled here to accomplish 

 nearly the same amount of work as six in Norway. This new method is 

 called ''under-running," and is found to be an improvement. Nets of 

 10-inch mesh are set the same as herring nets, being suspended by 

 hollow glass balls or floats at any required depth. They are usually 

 left out several days at a time, the fishermen under-running them each 

 morning, and taking out the fish that have been caught in the meshes 

 during the night. None are caught except at night. The first trials 

 proved successful, the Northern Eagle taking 4,000, G,000, and 7,000 

 pounds, respectively, on her first three trips with nets, in spite of 

 the weather being unfavorable. The nets first used, part of wliich 

 liad been lent by the Commission, were found too weak to resist the 

 struggles of the larger cod, some of which weigh as much as 75 or 80 

 pounds each. The average weight of those taken in the nets is 23 

 pounds. Stronger nets were soon obtained, and their number was in- 

 creased. At present the Northern Eagle carries 8 dories, each with a 

 single man, who is provided with a gang of three nets, making a total 

 of twenty-four nets for the crew. The nets are efich 50 fiithoms long 

 and three fathoms deep, knit of salmou twine. Unexampled success 

 has resulted from the use of these new nets. On a trip ending January 

 lltli, 35,000 i)ounds of cod were taken by the crew of the Northern Eagle, 

 8,000 pounds of whicli were obtained in a single morning. Two other 

 vessels, which were absent the same length of time, fisliiug at the same 

 place, but in the old way, got only 4,000 and 5,000 pounds, respectively. 

 Later, another trip was made by the same vessel, which was even more 

 successful, when 35,000 pounds of cod were caught in four daA s' fishing, 

 18,000 pounds being taken in one day. The catch was three times as 

 large as that of the trawlers fishing on the same ground. 



At first the nets met with the same opposition from the trawlers that 

 trawls had from the hand-line fishermen, when they were introduced, 

 some thirty years ago. Although at first inclined to inveigh against 

 "building a fence" to i^revent the fish from reaching the trawls, &c., 

 the fishermen soon began to realize its advantages. Whenever in port, 

 the deck of the Northern Eagle would be crowded with fishermen anxious 

 to learn about this new method of fishing. Letters from all along the 



