150 American Fisheries Society 



of the streams and the restocking of the same by artificial 

 methods. As the population grew and the number of 

 fishermen increased it became necessary that the rights 

 of the people in the fish should be guarded by law in the 

 same manner as the rights of the people in property are 

 guarded. It is a self evident proposition to people who 

 look into the matter that fish should not be taken during 

 the spawning season, and while on the nest, or else there 

 will be no supply of young fish to grow up and take the 

 place of the larger ones which furnish the sport and food. 



No sane person would take the setting hen from her 

 nest to furnish a meal for the suddenly arriving guest, 

 and the same should be true in regard to taking a fish 

 which is guarding its nest, and at which time it is as 

 easily caught as the hen on her eggs. The farmer who 

 kills all his chickens before they reach the egg-laying 

 period will in a short time have no eggs, and the same is 

 true of the persons who take the small fish before they 

 reach the size and age when they can reproduce them- 

 selves. 



It is to prevent such wasteful destruction that the laws 

 were formulated and if the people can be educated to 

 understand the reasons for these laws, as set forth above, 

 there will be as common an assent to their enforcement as 

 there is to the laws protecting people in their rights of 

 property. 



The fish of the State are the property of the Common- 

 wealth and are for the use and benefit of the whole people, 

 not only as a very important food supply, but as a means 

 of sport and recreation. The importance of laws pro- 

 tecting fish from wasteful methods of fishing are not new, 

 as we find them to have been enacted in England as far 

 back as the twelfth century. Having taught the people 

 the importance of the laws protecting the fish so that they 

 will propagate and multiply, it will be an easy matter 

 to create an aroused sentiment of the absolute importance 

 of keeping the waters of the Commonwealth pure and 

 undefiled so that the fish may live and thrive therein. 

 In fact public sentiment is aroused to such an extent at 



