Hi REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



"with them between Waquoit and Monomoy Poiut, aud tberefore thej 

 would have coutinued abuudaut within these limits, while they would 

 have grown scarce in Vineyard Sotiud and in the two great bays; (6,) 

 all, or nearly all, the fish must, as they come in, crowd toward the shore 

 at certain jjoints, and must pass withhi 1,200 feet of it, because that is 

 the usual length of the trap-leader; (c,) all, or nearly all, these scup 

 must be captured before they have spawned, otherwise the race would 

 be abundantly continued, despite the capture of the parents. Each 

 of these conditions is fulfilled, according to the opponents of traps. 



The scup, they say, do all stand in as indicated above ; they are full 

 of spawn ; and they encounter a different pressure and a varying tem- 

 perature, which render them slow and lethargic ; aud, in this condition, 

 they are swept by tides and eddies against certain points of the shore, 

 or of themselves seek the sunshine in protected nooks and bays, where 

 they are captnred by hundreds and thousands of barrels. If, on the 

 contrary, they were let alone, they would soon cast their spawn and 

 then would spread far and wide, as a bottom fish, greedily taking the 

 hook. Under the present system, vast quantities of gravid fish are 

 thrown on the market in May, but in the summer and early autumn it 

 is hard to get any. The trappers admit the chief facts, though not the 

 inference. They agree that the scup come in altogether between the 

 Vineyard and Montauk Point ; that they are " numb" aud full of spawn 

 at that time, and that during warm spells they stand close in, often 

 seeking quiet coves ; while, in cold, easterly weather, they keep off in 

 deeper water. They admit, further, that the quantity taken is very 

 great,* but maintain it is but a snmll proportion of the whole. They 

 are lame in two ways; in the first place, they could give no reasons, 

 that were tenable, for a diminution they fully admitted. In the second, 

 they were usually very shy about giving any testimony at all before the 

 Ehode Island committee, i^evertheless, it does not follow that they 

 have the wrong of it. The question must be answered by a collection 

 and a comparison o( facts. It is clear that the scup aijproaches the 

 shore in a way differing from that of the alewife, a hardy, active fish, 

 which does not spawn till later, and then in fresh ponds. It viay there- 

 fore be that scup will fall en masse into a trap, which alewives would 

 under certain circumstances avoid, as has been nearly proved in the 

 case of the Waquoit weir. 



The blue-fish theory is an old one, but new in its application to scup. 

 Mackerel aud menhaden are, as is well known, driven away by them, 

 but it has always been maintained that scup Avere too spiny to be a 

 favorite food, and practically were let alone in favor of fatter and less 

 bony prey. The witnesses in the Massachusetts and the Ehode Island 

 investigation were unanimous in their assertion that a scup in the stom- 

 ach of a blue-fish was a very rare thing; Professor Baird, however, has 

 found many scup in their maw. It is true that these were usuall}^ from 

 scup-traps, and the blue-fish may have attacked them simply because 

 they were the only prey at hand. On the whole, it will be perhaps 

 pretty near the truth to saj' that, although the blue-fish blindly destroys 

 almost everything that comes in his way, his main food is the soft fishes 

 and mollusks, such as menhaden, mackerel, alewives, and squid. Scui) 

 were abundant when the whites first visted the country, certainly from 

 1621 to 1042. At some time after this, not yet ascertained, they disap- 



* In 1867, six traps at Saiigkoiuiet Point took 10,000 barrels of scup. Next year, 

 however, by reason of bad weather, they got only about a third as many for the whole 

 season. — (B. Tallnian.) In 1870, about 6,000 barrels of scup were taken by the Saug- 

 konuet Point traps before May 16. — (D. Church.) 



