180 Thirty-Third Annual Meeting 
been seized by other fishes, but they fall upon the hooked fish, 
cod, haddock, etc., and eat them, leaving only the heads and 
parts of the skeletons. One fisherman with a trawl of 500 hooks, 
near Gott’s island, took at one haul five haddock, a good many 
haddock heads, and 217 dogfish. Another trawler, the same day, 
on nearby ground, took at one haul two hake-heads, three skates 
and 224 dogfish. So destructive were the dogfish that it seemed 
to fishermen and dealers that unless some remedy could be found, 
there would soon be an end of all other fish. 
Dogfish have been found very injurious to other branches of 
fishing. Mackerel seiners have sometimes found that when an 
say 200 barrels at one 

especially large catch had been made 
set of the seine—unless the fish could be speedily removed from 
the seine, the dogfish were almost certain to attack the enclosed 
body of mackerel, biting holes in the fine seine, to get at their 
prey, and thus not only greatly injuring the gear, but in addi- 
tion, letting loose all the mackerel they could not seize and 
devour. 
So serious have the ravages of the dogfish become, that gov- 
ernments have been besought to interfere, and by the offering of 
bounties or by some other means, to assist in their destruction. 
A Canadian official report notes, as samples of the suggestions 
made by various people, eight different schemes for the war 
against them, some of which aim simply at their destruction, and 
others at some utilization. These suggestions are so interesting 
that I will read the whole list. 
1. Liberate alive some hundreds of dogfish having securely 
fastened outside their bodies (by means of hooks, wires, etc.) 
glittering and gaudy streamers or jingling chains or bells, cal- 
culated to terrify and frighten away the schools of dogfish, on 
the old principle of setting at liberty a rat with a bell hung 
round its neck. 
2. Inoculate a number of dogfish with some fatal or con- 
tagious disease, thus securing the infection and death of all the 
schools of dogfish which may hover near, on the principle adopt- 
ed in reducing the pest of rabbits in Australia some years ago. 
3. Dynamite the great schools of dogfish when they appear. 
4. Employ the government cruisers and their men in cap- 
