REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIKS. XVII 



. the waters of the United States, as to chemical composition, temperature, 

 &c., with special reference to their availability in nurturing the proper 

 species of food- fishes. 



4. A history and description of the various methods employed in 

 North America, in the pursuit, capture, and utilization of fishes and 

 other aquatic animals, with suggestions as to imperfections of existing 

 methods and the presentation of devices and processes not hitherto 

 adopted in the United States. A careful study of all the circumstances 

 connected with this division of the proposed work of the Fish Commis- 

 sion has shown that an exchange of experiences may be of very great 

 imix)rtance in improving the old fisheries and developing new ones. Sev- 

 eral methods of fishing employed in Europe and unknown in the United 

 States can be introduced to very great advantage ; but so far no special 

 effort has been made to bring this about. Among the noteworthy of 

 these is the system of beam trawling, so universal and so productive in 

 Europe, and by means of which the flat fishes, especially the turbot and 

 sole, are obtained in immense quantities, in otherwise unproductive local- 

 ities and at moderate cost. It may almost be said that there is a larger 

 investment in this fishery than in any other in Great Britain ; and yet it 

 is practically entirely unknown in the United States, its use having 

 been confined to the operations of the United States Fish Commission, 

 of Professor AgaSvSiz, and perhaps the Chicago Academy of Sciences. 

 There is no doubt that beam trawling will add enormously to the facili- 

 ties for procuring wholesome food at a very cheap rate. The sandy 

 coast of the United States, especially south of Cape Cod, is pre-emi- 

 nently adai)ted to the use of this apparatus, and there are thousands of 

 square miles over which it can be carried with no i)ossibility of exhaust- 

 ing the supply. 



Another method of fishing, in great part unknown, or at least unprac- 

 ticed in the United States, is that of taking codfish by means of gill-nets. 

 Could this be introduced on our shores, especially in connection with the 

 vast schools of cod that come in winter on our coast ^ spawn, it would 

 relieve fishermen of their great embarrassment, namely, that of j^rocur- 

 ingbait. During the winter season it is frequently almost impossible to 

 obtain bait of the proper kind, and without which fish cannot be taken. 

 In the Loffodeu Islands there is a fishery very similar to that referred 

 to, in which, during the winter, large numbers of fish are taken, one-half 

 of which, and these the finest and fattest, are caught in gill-nets without 

 any bait whatever. The American methods of the treatment of fish in 

 preparation for market can also be greatly improved by adopting foreign 

 experience. 



5. Statistics of the various branches of the American fisheries from 

 the earliest procurable dates to the i)resent time, so as to show the de- 

 velopment of this important industry and its actual condition. There is 

 no nation so badly provided with such statistics as the United States ; 

 and in the absence of ai)pointed methods of gathering them the task 



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