370 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



gradually grew in importance until in 1880 there were upwards of sixty large and small factories 

 in that region, that employed seven hundred and eight fishermen and factory hands, and that pro- 

 duced oil and guano valued at $303,829. 



11. PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION. 



The States of Maine and Massachusetts have enacted several laws for the protection of the 

 menhaden fishery. The most important law in Maine, passed in 1865-'60, prohibited the setting of 

 any seine within three miles of the shore for the purpose of taking menhaden, but "a net of no 

 more than one hundred and forty meshes shall not be deemed a seine." 



In Massachusetts "fishing with seines in the Merriinac, when the menhaden stand in, is for- 

 bidden by law. The mouth of the river has, however, never been defined by the governor as 

 permitted by statute; and it was represented to the commissioners that valuable menhaden fish- 

 eries existed in this neutral ground of brackish water. Therefore, under the personal promise of 

 the fishermen to capture no shad or salmon, and with the guarantee of responsible persons in 

 Newburyport, the commissioners agreed to defer the defiuitiou of the river mouth, and to assume 

 that these menhaden were not positively included in the river proper."* 



Since the general adoption of the purse-seine there has been considerable opposition to this 

 apparatus on the ground that it is destructive to the fishery. Congress and State legislatures 

 have been petitioned to prohibit the use of menhaden seines within certain specified tracts of water, 

 such as the Chesapeake Bay and the coast of New Jersey. During the winter of 1882 the legislature 

 of the latter State passed restrictive laws, but the governor of the State vetoed the laws as uncon- 

 stitutional, since, by the law, the, State claimed jurisdiction within three miles of the coast, whereas 

 the attorney-general of that State decided that no jurisdiction could be claimed beyond low-water 

 mark. 



Congress having been petitioned to pass laws prohibiting the capture of menhaden during the 

 spawning season, a sub committee of the Committee on Foreign Relations was appointed by 

 Senate resolution of July 20, 1882 i to examine, in conjunction with the Commissioner of Fish and 

 Fisheries, into the subject of the protection to be given by law to the fish and fisheries on the 

 Atlantic coast. This committee, during the season of 1882 and 1883, visited various parts of the 

 coast and took considerable testimony from fishermen and menhaden oil manufacturers. The report 

 of the committee,! submitted June 17, 1884, recommends (1) "That the use of purse aud pound- 

 nets, fyke or weir, in the waters of the Atlantic outside low-water mark should be absolutely pro- 

 hibited within 3 miles of the shore prior to the first day of June in each year south of a line drawn 

 east from the south cape of the Chesapeake Bay and prior to the 1st of July north of that line, with 

 suitable penalties for any violation of the law in this respect ; (2) That the use of meshes in such 

 nets of less than 1 inches bar measure should in like manner be prohibited at all seasons so as to 

 prevent the taking of young and immature fish." 



12. THE MENHADEN FISHERY AT THE EAST END OF LONG ISLAND; 1793 TO 1880. 



The capture of menhaden for fertilizing purposes at Long Island, N. Y., began about a hun- 

 dred years ago. Mr. B. F. Conklin, of Jamcsport, N. Y., a veteran fisherman of more than fifty 

 years' experience, gives the following account of the early history of the fishery at the eastern end 

 of Long Island. He says : 



"According to the best information I have been able to gather from old inhabitants, the use 



'Report oi'lhf. Commissiotirrs of Inland Fisheries tor 1877, j>. (>.">. 

 t Senate Beport No. 708, 48tU Congress, 1st session, pp. xxiv,377. 



