334 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



as long as some continue to use it others must, in self-defence, do the same. 

 No remedy can be effectual which is limited in its operation to the three-mile 

 limit, for mackerel spawn, like that of the codfish, floats on the surface, and 

 the fish prior to spawning feed at all distances from the shore. 



Inspector A. C. Bertram, in the Annual Report of the Department 

 of Fisheries, 1889, Appendix No. 3, p. 50, says : 



THE CHIEF AGENTS WHICH CAUSE SHORTAGE OF CATCH. 



The first and principal of these causes, the fishermen are every- 

 where unanimous in agreeing upon that is, the shore fisheries are 

 being ruined by purse seine fishing, as well as by trawl or set line 

 fishing. . . . 



The consequence is, that the schools are broken, and such as escape the 

 seines are scared away and lost to further capture by the boat fishermen. 

 The mischief does not end here, for on being enclosed in seines at least 50 

 per cent, on an average of the fish are of kinds not wanted. This residue 

 is taken out dead, thrown back into the water, and to this mass of dead, rotting 

 matter are added the offals or cleanings from the fish retained, by which a 

 large area of bottom is strewn, by aid of wind and tide, with tons upon tons 

 of putrid matter, which repels all approaching schools for the remainder 

 of the season. This process repeated upon the same grounds and within the 

 same bays, year after year, destroys the fish beyond the powers of reproduction ; 

 and the condition of the waters, together with repeated scaring aways, leads 

 the fish by degrees to abandon these places for other grounds. There is now 

 no more firmly or accepted fact than that the fish shun filthy and polluted 

 waters, just as graminivarous animals on land avoid filthy pastures whenever 

 they can, by seeking out cleaner grounds. That fish will flee from tainted 

 bait, in place of being attracted by it, is known to everyone, and is a great 

 illustration of the aversion of fish to contact with putrid or even tainted 

 matter. Out of a haul of 500 barrels by a purse seine, from 200 to 250 barrels 

 will be rejected, and is thus lost to food and commerce, besides being thrown 

 out dead, to pollute the waters and the bottom. This putrid mass will be 

 largely increased by offals from the retained fish being thrown in after it. ... 



Overseer Duncan Cameron, of St. Peters, reports a decrease in. 

 every branch of deep-sea fishing excepting alewives. This falling 

 off is not attributable to local causes or to a less vigorous prosecution 

 of the industry, but to the fact that on the approach of fish inshore 

 in the spring they are frightened away by American and Canadian 

 seiners. This cause of the decrease in the fishery is also entertained 

 by the most experienced fishermen of this district. A Regulation 

 prohibiting the use of Purse seines and trawls inshore is much 

 wanted. 



******* 



Overseer Duncan McDonald, of Aspy Bay, says : 



A great many mackerel were taken this year by hook-and-line, and it is a 

 pity that this ancient and successful mode of fishing was not generally prac- 

 ticed. It certainly would be more profitable for the local fishermen and far 

 better for the fishery. Nothing is so calculated to destroy this fishery as the 

 wholesale destruction caused by seines. Had it not been for seining, the 

 mackerel fishery would have been 50 per cent, better. The schools were broken 

 up and the fish frightened away. 



* * * * * * * 



Report of Lieut. A. R. Gordon, 1889, Report of the Department of 

 Fisheries for the calendar year 1889. Part III, page 6. 



