APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



Its early history is described thus: Captain E. J. Deblois of Portsmouth, 

 Rhode Island, says : 



" The first purse seine that was made so far as I know, was made by John 

 Tallman, the first, and Jonathan Brownell and Christopher Barker, in the year 

 1886. It was 264 meshes deep and 65 fathoms long. The purse weight was 56 

 pounds weight, and the blocks were the common single block, and they have to 

 reeve the end of the purse line through the blocks before they put the purse 

 weight overboard." 



The Minister further observes that the first seine operated north of Cape Cod 

 was used by Captain Nathaniel Adams of Gloucester, in the schooner " Splendid " 

 in the year 1850, but it was not until about 1860 that it became generally used 

 in a form similar to the present purse seine, since which time it has undergone 

 great improvements and its destructiveness has been much enhanced, particu- 

 larly within the past two years, by the introduction of the steam seine boat. By 

 the adoption of these steam propellers the boats are enabled to surround the 

 schools of fish much more readily and with wonderfully rapidity, besides which 

 advantage is taken of the steam power to purse the nets, which can be done in 

 this manner in an incredibly short space of time. 



The Minister further observes that it thus appears that this fishing engine 

 may be said to have reached the height of its destructiveness, and in the face 

 of the appended extracts from reports of fishery officers, total depletion of the 

 sea coast fisheries seems to be what must inevitably follow the continuance of 

 its use. 



(See Appendix No. 9 to this Report.) 



The Legislature of the State of Maine seemed to be fully alive to 

 the baneful effects of this destructive method of fishing, for in the 

 year 1883, that body passed an Act for the protection of migratory 

 fish, prohibiting the use of the purse and drag seines for taking mack- 

 erel within any bay or inlet, not more than two miles wide, under a 

 maximum penalty of $200, (Rev. Statutes of Maine, '83, sec. 17, c. 40, 

 p. 373) and later on, in 1885 this Act was amended to include bays 

 three miles wide, and the extreme penalty increased to $500. making 

 the Statute read as follows: 



" Sec. 17. The taking of mackerel, herring, shad, porgies or menhaden, and 

 the fishing therefor by the use of purse and drag seines is prohibited in all 

 small bays, inlets, harbours or rivers, where any entrance to the same, or any 

 part thereof, from land to land, is not more than three nautical miles in width, 

 under a penalty upon the master or person in charge of such seines, or upon the 

 owners of any vessel or seines employed in such unlawful fishing of not less than 

 $300 or more than $500, to be recovered by indictment, or action of debt, one- 

 fourth of the penalty to the complainant or prosecutor, and three-fourths to 

 the county in which the proceedings are commenced, and there shall be a lien 

 upon the vessels, stenmers, boats and apparatus used in such unlawful pursuit 

 until said penalty, with costs of prosecution is paid, but a net for meshing mack- 

 erel or porgies, if not more than 100 meshes in depth, and a net for meshing 

 herring of not more than 170 meshes in depth, and a net for meshing shad of 

 not more than 75 meshes in depth shall not be deemed a seine." (Acts and 

 Resolves of the State of Maine, 1885, c. 261, p. 215.) 



And the Federal Legislature of the CInited States recognized the necessity for 

 some restrictive measure, if even of only a partial nature, as is shown by the 

 following law providing against the landing or importation of mackerel so 

 caught between the 1st of March and the 1st. day of June into the United 

 States : 



" An Act relating to the importing and landing of mackerel caught during the 

 spawning season. 



" Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 



States of America, in Congress assembled. That for the period of five years, 



from and after the 1st. day of March, 1888, no mackerel other than what 



197 is known as Spanish mackerel, caught between the 1st. day of March and 



the 1st. day of June, inclusive of each year, shall be imported into the 



United States or landed upon its shores. Provided, however, that nothing in 



this Act shall be held to apply to mackerel caught with hook-aud-line from 



boats, and landed in said boats or in traps and weirs connected with the shore. 



