AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION*. J i - 



Is that correct? A. The fish are going away offshore : but they cau 

 be caught off shore as well as iushore. 

 Q. He says: 



And furthermore, if the scarcity offish be due to their going off into the doep watr 

 of the ocean, it is, of course, of very little moment to the tiitlieriiiaii that thy are a* 

 abundant in the sea as ever, if they do not couie on such ground* aa will permit their 

 being taken by his lines or nets. 



Is that correct? A. I thiuk so. You can catch fish offshore a well 

 as inshore. 



Q. Did you say that fish that cannot be caught are of no value to any 

 one ? A. 1 take it that fish which cannot be caught are of no value to 

 any one. 



Q. Is the report I have read substantially correct ! A. I do not know 

 as I understand it particularly. 



Q. The report also states : 



At the present time this resource is cut off to a great degree from thin claw of 

 in many places on the Massachusetts coast, where, as on Nantuckct, Martha'* YIOP- 

 yard, and elsewhere, the deprivation from the loss of profits by lulling is being m<t 

 seriously felt. The result, of course, of the inability to make a living ID thin ni4noer 

 is to drive the line-fishermen to other occupations, and especially to indue* t li- n to 

 leave the State for other fields of industry. 



Is that correct? A. I do not understand this driving off of the tUb. 

 If anything drives the fish off shore, it is the weirs and jMimni--, uud 

 not the fishermen. 



Q. You think that something does drive them off? A. I think that 

 the weirs and pounds drive the fish off shore. 



Q. Has this decrease in shore fisheries driven fishermen to other oc- 

 cupations, and do they leave the State to seek other fields of industry !- 

 A. I think so. 



Q. Is it a fact that they do leave the State for other fields of indus- 

 try ? A. Very few do so. 



Q. Is it the fact or not ? A. I think not. 



Q. You think that they do not leave the State ? A. Yes. 



Q. The report further states : 



In consequence the population is reduced, and the community feels thin drain o( 

 some of its best material in many ways. Furthermore, property dei>rc<-ial'i in valnt 

 farms and houses are abandoned, the average of taxation is increased, and niaity othr 

 evils, readily suggesting themselves, are developed. 



Again, an important stimulus to the building of ships and boat* is lost 

 creasing demand for vessels of various grades; and, what is more important I 

 country at large, the training of skilled seamen with which to supply our natm 

 our merchant marine generally is stopped, or more or lss Interfered with. 

 known that the Hue-fisheries, in their different manifestations, IIHV,. alw 

 looked upon as of the utmost importance in a politico-economical point of 

 which reason bounties were paid by the general government: and. alihou 

 have been lately withheld, it may be necessary to restore them in.onl 

 lost ground. 



Do you approve, generally, of these remarks which I have read from 

 Professor Baird's report to Congress ? A. Well, my opinion a 

 is, that there are as many fish in the sea as ever there were. 

 years when they are very plentiful on our coast. 



Q. Have your fisheries so decreased as to produce any <i 

 mentioned in the extracts which I have read to you, or n 

 haps this is so in some cases. Our fishing was never I 

 on our coast last season at our place. 



Q. But that was an exceptional case ?-A. tt ell, it 

 year before. 



