150 American Fisheries Society 



the fact that these alewives are an important fish as a 

 means of attracting the other marketable fish to the 

 whole Atlantic shores, and one cause of the decline in 

 the shore fisheries can be attributed to the destruction 

 of the alewife fisheries in the coastal streams. There- 

 fore, there is firm ground for the opinion that the ale- 

 wife fisheries, far from being solely a town asset, or even 

 of concern to this State alone, are in fact an important 

 national asset, and as such should be subject to Federal 

 regulation for the benefit of all the fish consumers of 

 every State in the Union whither fresh or prepared sea 

 fish are shipped from the coastal States. 



The Remedy. — The solution of this problem lies entire- 

 ly, in my opinion, in Federal or at least in State control 

 as distinct from town control. Restrictive legislation 

 is not a rapid and economical method for increasing the 

 quantity of fish, but almost invariably, in my experience, 

 restricts the demand without increasing the supply. Two 

 things are absolutely essential for the development of the 

 alewife fishery. The first is that a sufficient quantity of 

 alewives get to the spawning ground at the head waters 

 of the stream by removing all obstructions to or by pro- 

 viding suitable devices for the passage ; secondly, placing 

 spawning alewives or eyed eggs in ponds at the head wa- 

 ters of the streams to re-establish fisheries which have 

 become extinct. The regulation of the fisheries must be 

 conducted in such a manner that the right proportion of 

 the fish be allowed to pass up the stream to the spawning 

 ground. This can only be done by people who are inter- 

 ested in the welfare of the fishery, rather than in getting 

 all the money they can from the fishery. The fishery 

 should be taken from the hands of the selectmen who have 

 proved incompetent or too busy to handle the problem, and 

 placed in the hands of a competent State board which 

 could regulate the fishery by a scientific and uniform sys- 

 tem both as regards stocking and removing of obstruc- 

 tions, and the correct regulations for the future develop- 

 ment of the fishery. If the fishery is to be sold to the 

 highest bidder, the term of years should be extended to at 



