DESPATCHES, REPOBTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 301 



No. 12. 1872, December 2 : Extract from Report of Professor Spencer 

 F. Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution, the Commissioner ap- 

 pointed pursuant to the foregoing resolution. 



GENERAL SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 



The general conclusions at which I have arrived as the result of 

 my investigations of the waters on the south side of New England 

 during 1871 and 1872 may be briefly summed up as follows: 



I. The alleged decrease in the number of food-fishes in these 

 waters within the past few years has been fully substantiated. 



II. The shore-fishes have been decreasing during the past twenty 

 years, gradually at first, but much more abruptly from about the 

 year 1865, the reduction by the year 1871 being so great as entirely 

 to prevent any successful summer-fishing with the hook and line, 

 and leaving to the traps and pounds the burden of supplying the 

 markets. This statement applies also, but perhaps to a certain ex- 

 tent, to the blue-fish. The decrease in their numbers first manifested 

 itself about ten years ago, and is going on quite rapidly until now. 



III. This period of decrease represents the time during which the 

 traps and pounds have been well established, their operations in- 

 creasing year by year, and their catch, especially in the early spring, 

 being always very great. 



IV. In 1871 and 1872 the decrease in the number of fish has been 

 so great as to reduce very largely the profit formerly derived by the 

 traps. 



V. The appearance, in 1871, of an unusually large number of young 

 fish spawned in 1870 is a phenomenon only to be explained by the 

 probable escape of a larger number of breeding-fish than usual dur- 

 ing the previous season, an abrupt decrease in the ravages of blue- 

 fish and other species, or else by a spontaneous movement northward 

 of newly-hatched fish that ordinarily would have remained on a more 

 southern coast. While these fish will probably, for several years, 

 constitute a marked feature in the fisheries, there is no evidence of 

 the existence of a second crop of young fish corresponding to the one 

 in question. 



VI. The decrease of the fish may be considered as due to the com- 

 bined action of the fish-pounds or weirs and the blue-fish, the former 

 destroying a very large percentage of the spawning fish before they 

 have deposited their eggs, and the latter devouring immense numbers 

 of young fish after they have passed the ordinary perils of imma- 

 turity. 



VII. There are no measures at our command for destroying the 

 blue-fish, nor would it be desirable to do this, in view of their value 

 as an article of food. The alternative is to regulate the action of the 

 pounds so as to prevent the destruction of fish during the spawning 

 season. 



VIII. The quickest remedy would be the absolute abolition of the 

 traps and pounds. This, however, would be a harsh measure, anfl 

 their proper regulation will probably answer the purpose of restoring 



