REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 61 
and Fisheries on January 25, and ordered to be printed (H. Doc. no. 
1519, 63d Cong., 3d sess.). The committee examined a very large 
amount of material for American and European fisheries, and 
reached unanimous conclusions which were accepted as the official 
views of the Bureau. The findings of the committee with reference 
to the major questions to which the fishery has given rise in Ameri- 
can waters are as follows: 
1. There is_no evidence that the banks resorted to by American 
otter trawlers are being depleted of their fishes. 
2. Otter trawling does not destroy the spawn of the important 
commercial fishes, all of which have floating eggs. 
3. Otter trawling does not injuriously affect the bottom and does 
not denude it of organisms which directly or indirectly serve as food 
for the commercial fishes. 
4. From the very nature of the two fisheries, otter trawling and 
line fishing can not be extensively prosecuted on the same grounds 
without accidental damage to lines and interference with line fishing, 
but in the period covered by the investigation only slight interference 
or damage occurred. 
5. Otter trawls as compared with lines take a much larger per- 
centage of commercial fishes too small to market, and such fishes are 
practically all destroyed. 
6. Otter-trawl vessels as compared with trawl-line vessels market 
a much larger proportion of small fish. 
The findings of the committee as to the effects of otter trawling 
are necessarily inconclusive because of the short time that has elapsed 
since the establishment of the fishery and because of the small num- 
ber of vessels engaged. The vital consideration being the safeguard- 
ing of the food-fish supply of coming generations rather than the 
immediate and demonstrable effects on that supply of particular 
kinds of apparatus or methods, the committee believe that the otter- 
trawl fishery should be kept under careful observation and should be 
so regulated as to obviate in American waters the conditions that have 
arisen in the North Sea from an excessive use of otter trawls. 
The measure which is regarded as the most just, reasonable, and 
feasible to prevent an undue development of the New England otter- 
trawl fishery is to restrict it to the regions to which it has up to 
this time practically been confined and on which its effects will be 
most immediately and most unmistakably manifested, namely, George 
Bank, South Channel, and part of Nantucket Shoals. This course 
will retain to the otter trawlers sufficiently extensive grounds, it will 
not exclude line fishermen therefrom, and will reserve to the latter’s 
exclusive use the grounds from which they take over two-thirds of 
their trips. 
This fishery was conducted on the same grounds as in 1913, namely, 
Georges, South Channel, and Western Bank, and nine vessels were 
regularly engaged. The fishery was carried on chiefly from Boston 
as heretofore, although during a portion of the year two vessels be- 
longing to New York operated out of that port, and several vessels 
have begun to discharge their fares regularly at Portland. 
The amount of fish landed at Boston by otter trawlers in 1914 
was 16,921,295 pounds, an increase of 1,747,985 pounds over the 
previous year. The total number of trips brought in was 376, an 
86497°—17——_5 
