120 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



One other way would be to hire the fisherman to leave them, and to 

 stand back and fold his arms and see natnre j)erform her wonderful 

 work without the interference of ^lan. The present mode of fishing 

 catches vast quantities of a species of flat-fish, {Plafessa deutata,) which 

 no doubt fed upon the spawn of haddock when the hand line only was 

 in use. 



One other species, our common halibut, which is caught in the same 

 way, have greatly diminished. When I first engaged in this lishery, 

 Boston was supplied wholly with halibut caught between Cape Cod and 

 Nantucket Shoals. The demand was limited — only a few could be sold. 

 There were no railroads. Boston only wanted enough to supply the city 

 and the surrounding towns. As facilities for transportation increased, 

 and ice began to be used to keep them, they were sent further away. 

 The supply would not meet the demand. The fishery was prosecuted 

 by vessels from Gloucester, on George's Bank, and also on Brown's 

 Bank, the western coast of Nova Scotia, and upon the Banks of New- 

 foundland, and voyages have been made to Greenland, and halibut have 

 been caught in quantities as far north as the latitude of GS, on the Avest- 

 ern coast of Greenland. They seem to be decreasing on all the fishing- 

 grounds. But I must pass them by, and leave senators to decide whether 

 or not over-fishing has been the cause of the increase of the one anil the 

 diminution of the other of these two species. 



It appeared in evidence before the committee that the fish known as 

 the squeteague is increasing in the vicinity of Buzzard's Bay, and along 

 the shore south of Cape Cod. Some sixty years since it was vastly abun- 

 dant in the southern part of Massachusetts Bay, and although absent 

 for so many years it seems to be returning to its former haunts. 



But the great change that has taken place in our fisheries has been 

 caused by the return of the blue-fish. This species was abundant on 

 our coast many years ago. We are informed that in a journal of the 

 first settlement of the island of Nantucket, Avritten by Zacheus Macy, 

 1792, and contained in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, he says 

 a great pestilence attacked the Indians of that island in 17G3 and 17G5, 

 and that of the whole number, 358, 222 died. In that year, he says, 

 the blue-fish disappeared, and I have no knowledge of a specimen 

 being seen here for more than 70 years. We are informed that they are 

 found in other localities. They are said to occur on the western coast 

 of Africa, around the island of Madagascar, and also at Australia ; if 

 so, they are found over a wider geographical range than any other species 

 with which I am acquainted, inhabiting the waters in both the torrid 

 and temperate zones. After an absence of so manj- years, they returned, 

 as appeared in evidence before the committee, about 1832, along the 

 shores south of Cape Cod. They did not come north of the cape so as 

 to affect our fisheries, until 1847, when they api^eared in vast abundance, 

 and drove away from our bay nearly all other species. I was at that 

 time engaged in fishing for mackerel with nets. This was the last of 

 our catch ; and every year since, when our fishermen are engaged in 

 this fishery, they appear. I have known them to ap])ear as early as the 

 second day of June, but usually they do not come until a few days later — 

 from the 5th to the 15th. ^Vhen they first appeared in our bay, I was 

 living at Long Point, (Provincetown,) in a little village containing some 

 270 population, engaged in the net-fishery. The blue-fish affected our 

 fishery so much that the people were obliged to leave the place. Family 

 after family moved away, until every one left, leaving that locality, whicli 

 is now a desolate, barren, and sandy waste. 



These fish not only depopulated our bay of nearly all other species, bu.t 



