REGULATION OF THE SEA-FISHEEIES BY LAW. 109 



Boston market it is not known as a marketable species, and is seldom 

 seen there. Only a few strangling specimens ventnre into the colder 

 waters north of Cape Cod. Witnesses stated before the committee that 

 they had a tradition informing them that scnp first appeared in Bnz- 

 zard's Bay in 1793." If it be true that scnp will avoid the colder water 

 north of Cape Cod, the force of the argnment that if they are not taken at 

 Seconnet Point they will keep on eastward, and then be taken by the 

 fishermen of Massachnsetts, is essentially impaired. 



It must not be overlooked that Mr. At wood in his speech has in mind 

 the fisheries of the coast of Massachusetts, and not. of Ehode Island; 

 besides, he was relieved from constitutional scruple, inasmuch as there 

 is no constitutional provision in Massachusetts as in this State in refer- 

 ence to the right of fishing, the intent and design of which he could not 

 disregard. It may be, therefore, that he is warranted in his belief that 

 in Massachusetts there is no necessity for the passage of any general 

 legislative act for the protection and regulation of the sea fish and fish- 

 eries ; but it does not follow that there is no necessity for such action 

 in Rhode Island. Finally, he makes this admission : " If fish have dim- 

 inished in any of the small arms of the sea, I should have no objection 

 to the passage of a local act, provided it did not interfere with the 

 rights of others." 



JI:^ow, as the testimony is ample and conclusive that scup and other 

 bottom fish have diminished in the rivers and bay and arms of the sea of 

 Rhode Island since the introduction of trap-fishing, it appears to tlie com- 

 mittee that some legislative restraint, as to the use of new instrumentali- 

 ties for fishing, which impair or destroy individual riglits, should be pro- 

 vided and enforced. The grave and complex question, how to adjust that 

 restraint, has been most anxiously aud carefully considered by the 

 committee. 



The boats, anchors, traps, and other apparatus required for the prose- 

 cution of trap-fishing are of heavy cost; some or all of these articles 

 and materials could be used for various useful purposes, if trapping was 

 prohibited. But this great interest should not be stricken down at 

 once. Care must be taken, however, that in seeking for the reasonable 

 preservation of that interest, the claims of another and large portion of 

 the people should not be disregarded. Mechanics and other respectable 

 persons who, by a cast of the hook and line, could, without interfering 

 with their regular duties and employments, add a dish to their frugal 

 tables, have not now the same chance as heretofore. It was in evidence 

 that in certain localities boatbuilding was quite abandoned ; that 

 parties did not visit Narragansett Pier, Stone Bridge, and other water- 

 ing places, or soon left them, because the attraction of good fishing was 

 wanting; and that this was attended by the depreciation of real aud 

 other property. 



After a careful and anxious investigation of the subject, the committee 

 have couie to the unanimous conclusion to recommend that the use of 

 all traps and heart-seines, and other contrivances for catching fish, not 

 including pike-nets, shore or purse seines, be prohibited in all the waters 

 of Rhode Island northerly of a line drawn from the southerly point of 

 the rocks at Brenton's Reef, to the southerly point of Point Judith, and 

 north of the Stone Bridge at Howland's Ferry. 



FRAJn^CIS BRTNLEY, 

 JOSEPH OSBORN, 

 JOSEPH W. SWEET, 

 HENRY T. GRANT, 

 JABEZ W. MO WRY, 

 Newport, June 15, 1870. Committee. 



