XX KEPORT OF COMMISSIONiy:i OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



the contrary, perhaps, being the case, since by means of the improved 

 methods of capture, iu the way of pounds and nets, an immense supply 

 is taken out at certain seasons of the year so as frequently' to glut the 

 markets. The scarcity referred to is better shown by the great difficulty 

 experienced by line-fishermen in securing a proper supply throughout 

 the year on grounds where they were formerly able to catch all they 

 needed for their own use and for sale.* 



The evil effects of the state of things here indicated, are felt iu many 

 ways. Primarily on the part of man5'- fishermen, resident on the coast, 

 who have been iu the habit of making a living by the proceeds of their 

 occupation, not only supplyiug .themselves with food, fresh and salt, 

 for the year, but also making a comfortable living by sales of their sur- 

 plus. At the present time this resource is cutoff to a great degree from 

 this class of people in many places on the Massachusetts coast, where, 

 as on Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and elsewhere, the deprivation 

 from the loss of profits by fishing is being most seriously felt. The re- 

 sult, of course, of the inability to make a living iu this manner is to 

 drive the line-fishermen to other occupations, and especially to- induce 

 them to leave the State for other fields of industry. In consequence 

 the population is reduced, and the community feels this drain of soaie 

 of its best material in many ways. Furthermore, property depreciates 

 in value, farms and houses are abandoned, the average of taxation is 

 increased, and many other evils, readily suggesting themselves, are 

 developed. 



Again, an important stimulus to the building of ships and boats is 

 lost in the decreasing deuiand for vessels of various grades ; and, what 

 is more important to the country at large, the training of skilled sea- 

 men with which to supply our national and our merchant marine gener- 

 ally is stopped, or more or less interfered with. It is well known that 

 the line-fisheries, in their difierent manifestations, have always been 

 looked upon as of the utmost importance in a politico-economical point 

 of view, for which reason bounties were paid by the General Gov- 

 ernment; and, although these have been lately withheld, it may yet be 

 necessary to restore them iu order to regain our lost ground. 



II. Cal^ses of the decrease. — As the testimony and considerations 

 already adduced may justly be considered as establishing the fact of the 

 vast decrease in the extent and value of the summer shore-fisheries on 

 the south side of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the question recurs 



*Iu the article on scup in the body of the report (p. '228) will be found a detailed ac- 

 count of the occurrence of the young fish^ to an enormous extent, in the spring of lb71, and 

 the speculations as to their origin. These reappeared iul87'2, though in much less numbers, 

 as two-year-old fish, and by autumn weighed from one-third to half a pound, aud will 

 doubtless be met with again in 187:? as marketable fish. There is, however, no evidence 

 to show that a renewed supjdy of young fish, or at least in anytliing like the same 

 numbers, was present in 187'^; wliicli tends to render tlie problem of their appearence 

 still more difficult of solution. 



