Field. — Massachusetts Aleiuife Fishery 147 



sageways for the fish should be made over all dams, but 

 in spite of the enactment and intent of these good laws, 

 they were either evaded or defied by the mill owners 

 with the result that in three-fourths of the alewife 

 streams there are, at the present time, from one to three 

 dams without suitably equipped fishways for the passage 

 of the alewives. 



(3) Cranberry Bogs. — In southern Massachusetts the 

 development of cranberry bogs along the alewife streams 

 with the frequent dams and obstructions have proved 

 a serious drawback to the success of the alewife fishery, 

 as the cranberry industry has been considered of more 

 value than the fishery, and the owners have not been 

 required to provide suitable passageways for the fish. 

 The profits of the cranberry bogs are usually sufficient 

 to warrant a reasonable outlay in maintaining the rights 

 of the fisheries. 



(4) Other Obstructions. — In spite of laws, private per- 

 sons have placed various obstructions in the different 

 streams which have prohibited the passage of the ale- 

 wives to their spawning grounds. 



(5) Deforestation and Pollution. — The pollution of the 

 streams from manufacturing sources has likewise proved 

 detrimental to the life and passage of the fish, and many 

 streams already reduced in volume as a result of defores- 

 tation are temporarily ruined for the shad and alewife 

 fisheries by the quantities of chemicals and other poison- 

 ous substances which have been turned into the water. 



(6) Laivs. — Legislative remedies, first applied in 1741, 

 have been cumulatively restrictive and unsystematic 

 rather than constructive, and few attempts have been 

 made to restock or replenish the supply of fish at the 

 spawning grounds. The aim of past legislation has been 

 rather to restrict the catch than to increase the produc- 

 tion, — a fundamentally wrong economic principle. Fu- 

 ture legislation should be on both types, constructive as 

 affects replenishment of the various streams, and re- 

 strictive only in such measure as to ensure the best 

 results from the restocking. On the whole, the legis- 



