FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 203 



a fair chance of fulfilling the principal object in view the 

 regular and increasing supply of food for the people. 

 Where mere destruction, as distinguished from the profit- 

 able capture, of fish takes place, prompt remedy should be 

 provided. The complete interdiction of dynamite as a Fishing with 

 means of killing fish is a case in point It. is proved that 3 

 the waste of fish, caused by an explosion of dynamite, is 

 many times greater than the harvest reaped ; for every fish 

 picked up, perhaps a score or a hundred may be destroyed 

 directly, while a shoal of fish s may be dispersed that would 

 otherwise have been captured by legitimate fishing. In 

 the prohibition of proved abuses of this kind the inter- 

 ference of the State is properly exercised. Where no such 

 proof exists, its action should be limited to the maintenance 

 of order and the adjustment, if need be, of disputes. 



On the other hand so many different causes, in addition 

 to the operations of the fishermen, have been suggested to 

 account for an occasional scarcity, real or supposed, of fish, 

 that, if any of them were really to any large extent con- 

 tributory to the general result, it would be a hopeless task 

 for the State to attempt to arrest the complete decay of 

 the fisheries with which modern Cassandras threaten us. 

 A lengthy list might be made of the artificial causes, other 

 than " overfishing," which have, at different times and 

 according to different authorities, affected the productive- 

 ness of the fisheries ; but the following brief selection will 

 suffice : Steamboat traffic, noises in boats, gutting fish at Effect of 



_ t artificial 



sea, ringing church bells, artillery practice, using fish as cau ses on the 

 1 manure, burning kelp, the erection of lighthouses, the fis 

 wickedness of the people. Of all these alleged causes only 

 the last, it is to be feared, has been, and is likely to be, a 

 permanent factor in the case. Long before steamboats 

 and lighthouses, the occasional scarcity of fish had been 



