274 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [10] 



methods Of fishing, &c., to which they were previously straugers, au.l 

 which has been of the utmost advantage to them for the successful prose- 

 cution of their work. The introduction of the use ot gill-nets n. the cod 

 fisheries may be mentioned as an instance in point, and v.ewed m the 

 lio-ut of results already attained (though we may yet consider this 

 method of fishing only Mrly begun), it seems not too much to claim 

 that the bringing about of such an innovation in the ocean hsheries is 

 entitled to rank among the most important works of the Commission. 

 The change which has been made in the method of taking cod and other 

 species of the Gadidcc has proved of such immense advantage to the 

 New Eno-land fishermen that an entire revolution has been created 

 in the winter shore cod fishery, and it is dilficult to prertict to how 

 great an extent th(^ gill-net fishery for cod may be prosecuted in the 

 future It is not now i)ossil>le (o say with any degree of certainty 

 whether or not gill-nets may be successfully employed in the cod fish- 

 eries of the outer banks, since a thorcmgh and careful trial needs to be 

 made to settle that question. A few unsatisfactory attempts have al- 

 ready been made by the fishermen to use gill-nets on the outer banks, 

 but in no case have these trials been so extensive and thorough as to 

 demonstrate fully what might or might not be done. In consideration 

 of the results which have already been attained, it seems desirable that 

 a brief historical sketch should be. given here of the introduction of gill- 

 nets into the cod fisheries of the United States, and also of the varying 

 success which has attended their use since they were first adopted by 

 American fishermen. 



Though gill-nets have long been used in :N"orthern Europe, more 

 especially in Norway, as an apparatus for the capture of cod, and are 

 considered by the Norwegians as quite indispensable, they have not, 

 until recently, been employed by American fishermen. In 1878 Prof. 

 Spencer E. Baird, United States Commissioner of Fish and Fish- 

 eries, knowing how profitably these nets were employed by the Nor- 

 wegian fishermen, decided to make experiments with them at Cape 

 Ann, with a view to their introduction among the fishermen of this 

 country. He accordingly secured a number of the Norwegian nets, 

 which were forwarded to Gloucester and there tested by the employ(?s 

 of the Commission. 



Experiments were made when the winter schools of cod were on the 

 shore-grounds in Massachusetts Bay; but the results obtained were 

 not entirely satisfactory, owing chiefly to the fact that the nets were 

 found far too frail for the large cod which frequent our coast in winter. 

 This was apparent from the numerous holes in the nets, which indicated 

 plainly that large fish had torn their way through, none being retained 

 excepting those that had become completi^ly rolled u]) in the twine. 

 The current also swept the nets afoul of the rocky bottom, which injured 

 them still more, so that they were soon rendered nearly unfit for use. 

 They were invariably in bad order when hauled from the water, but 



