138 American Fisheries Society 



may obtain a permit from the Fish and Game Warden to 

 own and use, during certain seasons of the year and under 

 certain prescribed conditions, a seine with meshes three 

 inches square. This law makes it possible for any citizen to 

 own and use a seine. The idea of a three-inch-mesh seine is 

 that fish weighing from three pounds upwards may be 

 caught. After fish reach this size, it is proper that they 

 should be caught and used for food. Many of the larger 

 fish, such as the buffalo and the carp, rarely take a hook, and 

 when they do they are hard to handle and land successfully. 

 By the use of a seine they can be taken more readily, and 

 lawfully. 



A seine with meshes three inches square makes it possible 

 for the young fish and fish up to three pounds in weight to 

 pass through its meshes, and as most fish spawn at least once 

 by the time they reach the weight of three pounds, this pro- 

 vision of the law guarantees a continual supply of fish in 

 the streams. It seems to us a wise provision of the law that 

 protects the young and undersized fish from being seined 

 until they can spawn at least once. 



After the fish, especially such varieties as carp and buf- 

 falo, have reached a weight greater than three pounds, it 

 seems not only proper, but advisable, to allow them to be 

 caught by use of a seine and used for food. 



At first certain parties were inclined to make light of this 

 provision of the law, but the number of letters received from 

 persons who have used these seines indicate that they are 

 pleased, and they pronounce the law a good one, as it works 

 for the benefit of both the fish and the fishermen. One 

 correspondent wrote that the farmers in his locality were 

 pleased with the law. He said : ''The farmers do not have 

 time to fish with hook and line and when they do they sel- 

 dom catch anything." "This law," he continues, "makes 

 it possible for the farmers to get fish without violating the 

 law." 



