212 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [122] 



the Ee v^olutiouary war that our fishermen could take them with their 

 gaffs? But dariug the war some mercenary and cruel individuals used 

 to visit the islands on the eastern shore where were the haunts of these 

 birds for breeding, and take them for the sake of the fat, which they 

 procured, and then let the birds go. This proceeding finally destroyed 

 the whole race. It is many years since I have seen or heard one except 

 on the coast of Cape Horn. In 1692 the General Court passed an act 

 prohibiting the taking of mackerel before the first day of July annually, 

 under i)cnalty of forfeiting the fish so taken. In 1702 this act was re- 

 vived with additional penalties — besides forfeiting the fish and apparatus 

 for taking, 20 shillings per barrel, and none to be taken with seines or 



nets. 



"A FISHERMAN. 

 "Marblehead, August 3, 1839." 



1859. — Protests against the use of seines. — A petition is now before the 

 Committee on Fisheries, in the House, to abolish the catching of mack- 

 erel in seines on our coast. As mackerel can now be caught only in this 

 way, and many of our people are interested in this business, it becomes 

 highly important that any such stupid petition should be prostrated at 

 once. Mr. Gifford has asked for a delay in the j)etition, and Mr. Atwood 

 has written to show the nature of the business upon our coast. One 

 thing is certain, if we do not take the mackerel in seines or nets we shall 

 get none at all. — (Provincetown Banner, February, 1859.) 



1870-1882. — Protest against the purse seine. — Since the general adop- 

 tion of the purse-seine no year has passed without a considerable amount 

 of friction between fishermen using this engine of wholesale destruc- 

 tion in the capture of mackerel and menhaden and those engaged in 

 fishing with other forms of apparatus. Petitions to Congress and State 

 legislatures have been made from both sides, and in some instances laws 

 have been passed by State legislatures prohibiting the use of menhaden 

 seines within certain specified tracts of water, such as the Chesapeake 

 Bay. These laws, while especially antagonistic to menhaden fishing, 

 were aimed chieHy at the i^urse-seine as a m^ans of capture, and would 

 doubtless have been eqnallj prohibitory' of mackerel fishing with purse- 

 seines had this been attemi3ted within the limits. In 1878 a delegation 

 of fishermen from Portland, Me., and Gloucester, Mass., visited Wash- 

 ington for the purpose of securing the passage of a law prohibiting the 

 use of purse-seines in the mackerel fishery. In 1882 the clamors of 

 shore fishermen, especially on the coast of New Jersey, led to the ap- 

 pointment of a committee of the United States Senate, which at the 

 time of printing this report is engaged in taking testimony regarding 

 the effect of the purse-geine upon the menhaden fishery, and incident- 

 ally upon other fisheries of the coast. The labors of this committee 

 will probably result in the recommendation of some form of legislation 

 which will apply, in part at least, to the mackerel fisliery. 



In the summer of 1882 a serious commotion was caused among the 



