1916 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Q. You catch nothing but mackerel ? A. We catch pogies and men- 

 haden, and herring, with the mackerel blue-backs, as we call them. 



Q. What are the pogies and menhaden ? A. What we use for bait. 

 We catch them sometimes. 



Q. How many do you take at a draught ? A. That varies very much ; 

 sometimes the haul is very large and sometimes very small. 



Q. Do you save all the fish you thus get ? A. We sometimes catch 

 so many that we cannot save them, and have to let them go; and some- 

 times we get so many that they let themselves go. 



Q. Are they alive or dead when you let them go ? A. They are almost 

 always alive. 



Q. Do you mean to say that you do not kill any with the seines? A. 

 We kill the small mackerel which get meshed in the net; the small be- 

 ing taken with the big ones, of course are killed. 



Q. Do you not take a large number of the small fish ? A. We did last 

 season, but never before. Last year the small and large fish were mixed 

 together, and we hauled in a great many of the small ones, which were 

 meshed and killed. 



Q. This destroyed them, of course ? A. Of course they were worthless. 



Q. And you have not had them back again this year ! A. I tell you 

 we have plenty of fish on our shore if they would only show on the sur- 

 face. It is not for want of fish that they are not taken. 



Q. How do you know ? A. I saw them out south. Bait was found 

 there and plenty of fish were schooling out south this spring. 



Q. Do you mean that there was no bait on the coast of Maine that 

 there were no pogies there ? A. There were pogies enough, but no bait 

 for the mackerel. 



Q. Are not porgies bait for the mackerel! A. The former are a big 

 fish, and the mackerel could not eat them very well, unless they were 

 ground up. 



Q. This fish requires to be prepared for bait ? A. Yes. 



Q. What was the bait on your coast? A. This little shrimp bait, of 

 which I spoke. 



Q. Is that shrimp found ten miles from the shore? A. Yes; and fifty 

 miles. 



Q. And that bait has failed this year ? A. Yes, entirely on the eastern 

 shore, but not out on the southern shore. 



Q. How do you know that it is to be found down south ? A. I was 

 there and saw the fish. 



Q. Where did you go ? A. To Cape May and all along down there. 



Q. This spring? A. Yes. 



Q. Did you get many fish? A. We did not get a great many; we 

 obtained a couple of hundred barrels. 



Q. Were these not poor mackerel ? A. Yes. 



Q. And are not the fish, the number ones, caught in the Gulf of Saint 

 Lawrence, first rate ? A. We now have not got over 20 barrels of num- 

 ber ones on the vessel, and they are nothing but miserable trash. 



Q. Have you marked them number oue ? A. The inspector marks 

 them. If I could do so, I would mark all the fish number one. 



Q. I have no doubt of that A. There is no trouble about that. 



Q. I have not a shadow of doubt about that. A. There is no trouble 

 about that. 



Q. You would mark them all number ones? A. Yes. 



Q. And they are good for nothing? A. They are very poor fish, in- 

 deed, speaking candidly about them. 



Q. And what the inspector will inspect as number ones are trash ? 



