330 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



same grounds. Nothing can escape them, and it is admitted by American fisher- 

 men themselves that a schooner making her catch with these fishing engines 

 destroys an equal number of young herring and mackerel. These seines ought, 

 in my opinion, to be forever banished from our waters, and their use especially 

 prevented in the small bays where fish are wont to go for the purpose of deposit- 

 ing their eggs, and where they breed and grow. . . . 



Dr. Wakeham, Commander of the Government Fisheries Protec- 

 tion steamer in the Lower River and Gulf, during the season of 1879, 

 Supplement No. 2 to the Twelfth Annual Report of the Minister of 

 Marine and Fisheries, 1879, p. 56, Appendix No. 3, said : 



These seines, besides destroying wastefully an immense quantity of fish rhat is 

 never saved, breaks up the schools and frightens the fish oft the coast. Such, 

 at all events, is the opinion of those best fitted to judge among our fishermen. 



Fishery Inspector Duvar, for the Province of Prince Edward 

 Island, for the year 1879, Supplement No. 2, to the Twelfth Annual 

 Report of the Minister of Marine and Fisheries, 1879, p. 265, Ap- 

 pendix 15, said, 



As regards the much vexed question of seining, it is historical that craft 

 fitted out for fishing on the coasts of Massachusetts and Maine, as recently 

 as 1863, used seines only for the purpose of taking " porgies " for mackerel 

 bait up to 1868, (or say 1870) when the practice was entered into on a large 

 scale in American waters for the taking of mackerel. Up to that season, it is 

 stated, vessels could each take 400 to 1,000 barrels per season with hook and line, 

 but after seining had prevailed only up to 1873, 300 barrels per season would 

 be all the hook-and-linesinen could take while the seiners even in the face of 

 the diminishing supply, would capture full cargoes of large mackerel, besides 

 each vessel netting a surplus of 1,000 barrels of small fish, which they made no 

 use of. The supply of large fish becoming scanty the American fleet tried 

 their fortune with seines in the Canadian waters of "the Bay." Here it was 

 their object to take only such first quality fish as would fetch a high price in 

 the United States markets, the smaller fish not leaving any margin for profit. 

 Now, the established fact that in ordinary fishing weather, each long seine may, 

 and usually does, draw to the vessel's side 20 to 100 barrels of small herring 

 and mackerel, over and above large ones, affords a basis on which to make 

 calculation of the value of the fishery in which foreigners share, and of the 

 destruction done to such fishery. Thus, 300 sail set their seines twice a day 

 during, say, forty fishing days, or 16.000 times; and, with even the proverbial 

 fisherman's luck, take at each cast of the seine from the waters to perish, make 

 no use of and throw overboard, only 15 barrels of fish of smaller size 

 200 than they require this is putting it at the lowest conceivable figure 

 the result shows at least 240,000 barrels of fish at, say, $2 per barrel, 

 or $480,000 of injury done to the Gulf fishery in six weeks of actual time. I 

 am aware there are persons capable of judging who may even consider the 

 estimate far too low. 



Advices, supposed to be reliable, state that the average number of 250 

 schooners, or more, fitted out, most of them with seine boats and seines, from 

 Gloucester and other American ports for the Canadian waters this spring. 

 When they arrived they found the fish, although schooling freely, were of small 

 size, which fact, it may be imagined, did not lessen the number of ftiose under 

 11 inches in length that would be thrown overboard before a cargo of prime 

 fish fit to bring a high price could be secured. 



Supplement No. 2 to the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Minis- 

 ter of Marine and Fisheries, " Fisheries Statements," 1880, Appendix 

 No. 3 Fishery Officer Wakeham's report for 1880: 



There is no doubt that some years ago the mackerel was so much disturbed by 

 the hosts of American schooners, with their destructive purse seines, that this 

 fish was driven off the coast. During the past three years we have seen fewer 

 American vessels, and now the mackerel are frequenting their old haunts in 

 greater numbers. This season they were seen schooling in great quantities, all 

 the way from Cape Chatte to Maguasha Head. 



