DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 327 



" Sec. 2. That section 4321 of the Revised Statutes is amended for the period 

 of five years aforesaid, so as to read before the last sentence as follows: 

 ' This license does not grant the right to fish for mackerel, other than for what 

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

 of June, inclusive of this year.' Or in lieu of the foregoing there shall be 

 inserted so much of said period of time as may remain unexpired under this 

 Act." 



" Sec. 3. That the penalty for violation or attempted violation of this Act 

 shall be forfeiture of license on the part of the vessel engaged in said violation, 

 if a vessel of this country, and the forfeiture to the United States, according to 

 law, of the mackerel imported or landed, or sought to be imported or landed. 



" Sec. 4. That all laws in conflict with this law are hereby repealed." 

 (Approved 2Sth. February 1887.) 



"Prof. Brown Goode (See V, Vol. 1) says: 'Opposition to the purse-seine 

 from 1870 to 1892.' 



" Since the adoption of the purse seine no year has passed without a consider- 

 able amount of friction between the fishermen using this engine of wholesale 

 destruction in the capture of mackerel, and those engaged in fishing with other 

 forms of apparatus. Petitions to Congress and State Legislatures have been 

 made from both sides, and in some instances laws have been passed by State 

 Legislatures prohibiting the use of nenhaden seines, within certain specified 

 tracts of waters, such as the Chesapeake Bay. These laws, while especially 

 antagonistic to the nenhaden fishery, were aimed chiefly at the purse seine as a 

 means of capture and doubtless would have been equally prohibitory of mack- 

 erel fishing with purse seines, had this been attempted within the limits. . . . 

 In 1878, a delegation of fishermen from Portland, Me., and Gloucester, Mass., 

 visited Washington for the purpose of securing the passage of a law prohibiting 

 the use of purse seines in the mackerel fishery." 



In 1877, the late Commissioner of Fisheries, Mr. Whitcher, in his annual 

 report for that year, said: "The modes of fishing most objectionable amongst 

 the fishermen and not provided against by our fishery laws, are purso seines 

 and trawls. Their use has been petitioned against from several seacoast dis- 

 tricts." (8 u pp. No. 5, 10th. Ann. Rpt. Min. M. and F. 1877, p. Hi.) 



On the 27th March, 1879, the late Dr. Fortin, M. P.. at one time commander 

 of the fisheries protection vessel " La Canadienne," in forwarding to the Depart- 

 ment a resolution of the County Council of Gaspe, strongly urging the abolition 

 of purse seining along the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, said: " No doubt 

 it has been proved beyond question that those engines are too destructive to be 

 tolerated much longer on our shores." 



In a haul of the purse seine it frequently happens that there are enclosed 

 say 100 barrels of fish, only a small portion of which are marketable, the re- 

 mainder being thrown overboard dead, and sinking to the bottom, foul the 

 ground and drive off the other fish. 



In evidence procured by the Department of Fisheries from 20 masters of 

 United States and 10 masters of Canadian vessels, 14 of the former and 9 of 

 the latter utterly condemned the purse seine as injurious to the fishery, and the 

 interests of the fishermen alike, not only from the total loss of the unmerchant- 

 able fish (which form a large proportion of the take), but from the defilement of 

 the waters and bottom, and the consequent diversion of the schools of fish from 

 their accustomed haunts. 



It must be remembered that while the mackerel cannot be caught by hook 

 and line during the spawning season, since they will not bite at that time, 

 the purse seines take them at all times. Captain John Nason, of the schooner 

 " Pendragon," Gloucester, 40 years a mackerel fisher, says: "All mackerel killed 

 before 1st. July in the Gulf are killed before spawning." 



Captain John Staples, schooner "Vesta," Gloucester, 30 years a mackerel 

 fisherman says: "In the North Bay, before the 1st July, about two-thirds of 

 the catch are female spawn mackerel, which of course are destroyed before 

 spawning. Upon the least I should say that more than 100 barrels are de- 

 stroyed for every barrel caught before the 25th July, in the North Bay." 



The preponderance of the evidence by many others proved that at least half 

 of the catch was killed before spawning. 



The effect upon the incoming schools of fishes can perhaps be appreciated, 

 if it be remembered that the fishing fleet consists of, say 250 sail, each attended 

 by two seine boats, in all 750 craft, large and small, rnano-uvering within a 

 distance of five miles from the shore, day and night, on an extent of 20 or 25 

 miles of coast, afterwards dispersing into squadrons of from 50 to 60 vessels. 



