1134 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



No. 32. 



I, JOHN GRAHAM, of Cavendish, in Queen's County, Prince Edward 

 Island, fisherman, make oath and say : 



1. That I have been engaged in fishing off this island, in boats, for 

 about fifteen years, and am acquainted with the fishing grounds. 



2. That there are fully forty boats along this beach without reckoning 

 the harbor, and the number is increasing every year. The number of 

 boats along here has doubled, if not trebled, in the last five years, and 

 the boats are better now than then, being better modeled and better 

 built. 



3. That these beach boats carry, on an average, crews of three men 

 each ; in the harbors the boats carry average crews of five men each, 

 that is, besides the stage men employed on shore, of whom there are 

 a good number. 



4. That the average catch of mackerel along this beach would be about 

 one hundred barrels to the boat. The bulk of these fish, I should say 

 three-fourths, are caught within one mile and one-half to two miles from 

 the shore. In the fall, the harbor boats sometimes go further off. 



5. That one reason for the increase in the number of boats is, that 

 people can now ship away their own fish, even in small quantities, 

 whereas, formerly, they had to sell to the dealers here for what the lat- 

 ter chose to give. We can always get the cash for the fish now, while 

 for farm-produce and in other business we cannot. It is found to pay 

 now, which is the great reason for going in for fishing. Fishermen han- 

 dle a good deal of money which they could not get in any other way. 



6. That the American fishermen come down here about the first of 

 July, and stop all summer. Sometimes I have seen as many as one hun- 

 dred and fifty sail of them from this stage at one time, all fishing close 

 to the shore ; they fish where the boats do. Latterly, they have been 

 using seines ; at one time last year (1876) I saw three of them seining 

 off this shore. I look upon their seining as an injury to our fishing. 

 There were not so many of them here last summer as in some former 

 years, but there have been seventy sail of them off the shore at a time 

 last year. 



7. That the Americans often do harm to our fishing by coming in among 

 the boats and taking away the fish. They come in near the shore and 

 throw a lot of bait and then drift off to sea and the fish follow them. 

 We never calculate on doing much for some days after we see the Ameri- 

 cans coming inshore, as the fish get full of bait and will not bite. They 

 come in among the boats which are getting fish and lee-bow them, thus 

 causing the mackerel to leave the boats. 1 never want to see them com- 

 ing round. After their fleet comes round we cannot do much with the 

 boats. I think that throwing over so much bait, and also throwing the 

 offal of so many fish overboard, injure the fishing. 



8. That it is a great advantage to the Americans to be able to come 

 here and fit out for fishing and transship their fish when they have them. 

 They come into Charlottetown and fit out, and they often" go into the 

 same port to ship away their fish. They save enough time by having 

 the right of transshipment, to make another voyage to the fishing 

 grounds. The fish get poorer in look and in quality by being kept 

 long in the holds of the vessels, and by being transshipped they are 

 saved from this deterioration, and consequently command higher prices- 



