AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. J 7 



your theory ! A. We know where they are taken in the Hummer a 

 we see them go away. 



Q. But you do not go down, to the bottom to seo thin! A. I am quit* 

 sure that they do so, and that the mackerel off I'rovineetown ami th* 

 coast of Massachusetts and along other parts of our coasr. go south and 

 head off somewhere near Nantucket. We know, at all event*, that tli.-v 

 are gone, and we do not see them again until early in the following 

 spring. 



Q. I want to obtain from you a distinct answer with reference to trawl- 

 ing ; is it not a most destructive mode of fishing ? A. The Hrnt trawling 

 we knew of on our coast was done by an Irish crew, who came in a little 

 schooner from Boston, and afterward our people began to practice it one 

 after another until about the whole fishery was HO carried on. They 

 abolished hand-line fishing and began to trawl all along our bay, it being 

 the most expeditious mode of fishing; owing to this practice (tali t>egan 

 to be scarcer and scarcer around our shores. Even in Karnstahle Bay, 

 and at Proviucetown, where I live, we used to catch fi.sh during the 

 winter ; but now, owing to trawling, no fish are to be found then- during 

 the winter, as formerly was the case. Thus trawling hag injured that 

 fishing-ground. 



Q. Then I understand you to say that this mode of fishing with trawU 

 is injurious? A. Yes; to the inshore fisheries. 



Q. And is it not injurious to the fisheries at large, and are not the 

 mother fish, which will not bite under ordinary circumstance*, thun 

 taken ? A. Well, I suppose that trawls do catch the mother Hsu Hah 

 with as well as fish without spawn. If the mother fish were not taken, 

 this would increase the number offish, but we cannot fish in any JHMWI- 

 ble way successfully without diminishing their number; and when we 

 look at the fecundity of the fish and see how wonderful it is 



Q. If they were not wonderfully plenty, they would not be caught on 

 your coast at all. Is it not a very injurious mode of fishing, in your 

 judgment? A. Trawls take up the fish from the ground more readily 

 and more rapidly than is the case with hand-lines. 



Q. Do you really say that, in your judgment, trawling is a proper mo! 

 of fishing ? Speaking as a practical man and as one acquainted 

 these fisheries, would you recommend the United State* Government to 

 permit it? A. Well, I do not say but what it would be best t 

 trawl-fishing all round the shore, and puree-seining, and go back 

 hook-and-line business again. I think that this would 

 plan, on the whole 



au, \ju tiic v mjic. . . . 



Q. You say that squid in former years were very plen 

 ast? A. Yes; they were scarce and afterward plentiful 

 _iuk that about 1872 or 1873, for two or three years, the 

 very abundant in our waters, and more plentiful than I ever 

 to be at any previous time. In 1807 1 investigated into the naW 



coast 

 think 



to HFC at auy ineviuua LILUC. AH *.^< t 



particularly of fishes, to prepare myself for the de .very of . 

 lectures at the Lowell Institute; but during the whole of i 

 could not see a single squid anywhere about Cape < 



Q. Did they ever come back again f-A. \ es ; in 18, J they 

 abundant than I ever knew them to be. 



Q. Then did they disappear !-A. Now they have go t 



Q. Have you any idea what has driven them aw; 

 not form any idea. 



Q. Haven't you got a fish there that they call 

 very destructive f-A. Yes; they came north of Cape 

 disarranged our fisheries. 



Q. And they have come every year s 



