[7] PROTECTION TO ATLANTIC FISHERIES. 231 



ditions of temperature for the development of the eggs of different ocean 

 species prevail during the spawning season of the species. 



To these areas, thus circumscribed or defined, the oceanic species, in 

 the season of their spawning, resort as certainly and invariably as do 

 the shad and the salmon each in their season to our rivers; such being 

 the fact, it is possible in the case of the sea fishes that destructive or 

 exhaustive methods of fishing i)ursued on their spawning grounds, may 

 result in the destruction or exhaustion of the schools thus localized. !<" 

 is true that the amount taken by man's agency may be infinitesimal 

 compared with the aggregate destroyed by natural causes, but man's 

 supply is taken from the remnant which has escaped destruction by 

 natural causes, and all or nearly all must be permitted to spawn in or- 

 der to maintain i^roductiou. I think, therefore, that both in regard to 

 the ocean species and the river species, the question whether we can 

 affect the supply by man's agency is to be answered beyond a doubt in 

 the affirmative. 



As regards the menhaden, which is the i)rincipal object of this in- 

 quiry, the investigations of the Chesapeake region, although the evi- 

 dence was circumstantial, showed bej'ond a doubt that the menhaden 

 on entering the Chesapeake Bay in the spring of the year entered there 

 full of spawn ; that by the middle of May this spawn had been deposited 

 and the fish were then lean and impoverished. As to the menhaden in 

 the Chesajjeake region, though usually regarded as an ocean species, 

 spawning broad off from the shores, the probability is, and the convic- 

 tion of the fishermen is, that it spawns in that region in the tidal creeks 

 and salt-water estuaries of the rivers, and of course it would be under 

 the same conditions and, as far as exhaustion is concerned, affected by 

 the same agencies as the river species. 



REGULATION AND PROTECTION OF THE SEA FISHERIES BY LAW. 



Thepropriety of any law prohibiting the })rosecution of the menhaden, 

 mackerel, cod, or herring fisheries, during the spawning season of the 

 fish is extremely doubtful. 



Legislation should be directed not so much to prohibition of fishing 

 during the spawning season — about which we are not yet very certain — 

 but rather to such general regulations as will contribute to maintain 

 production and put the product into market under the most favorable 

 conditions to the fishermen. ' 



The result of our investigations on the coast defines very clearly not 

 only the character of the legislation that is necessary, but indicates that 

 such legislation will be acceptable to the fishermen themselves. The 

 mackerel fishermen, or rather the men who handle the mackerel and 

 control the fishermen, were found to have a very general concurrence 

 of opinion in favor of a law prohibiting fishing for mackerel before the 

 20th of June each season. In the Chesapeake region it was found that 

 the ininciiJal men engaged in the menhaden fisheries, those who had 



