REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS xxxvii 



1S97 a catch of 45,000 shad is recorded. Such big catches could not fail to have 

 an extremely harmful aud widespread result. Indeed one witness said that when 

 such big hauls were made " the shadmen could not take care of their big catches 

 and had to let some go adrift." In 1865-68 I have known 3,000 to 4,000 taken at 

 a time, but S,000 to 10,000 was more usual, and never more than three or four 

 spawners taken at such times. Shad have declined gradually, although there are not 

 so many weirs for shad as there used to be.' Officer Adolphus Bishop in his evidence 

 declared to the Commission that overfishing must be blamed as a principal cause 

 of decline, and recently Inspector Harrison in his official report, 1907-8, likewise 

 laid stress on overtishing as the cause of scarcity. He reports : — ' It is with great 

 regret the fishermen, as well as all classes of our people, find these excellent table 

 fish becoming scarcer from year to year. I think the real explanation is overfishing, 

 and fishermen along the St. John aud Washedamoak rivers, at least, realize the neces- 

 sity for action of some kind at once and are quite willing that greater restriction be 

 placed on the taking of them.' 



E. W. Starr, of Wolfeville, gave interesting evidence respecting the decline of 

 the shad on Cornwallis river. He informed the Commission that: — 



A stake net 300 or 400 yards long was thrown across False channel below the 

 junction with Shad creek. This was very successful, and for several years the net 

 was added to, then it was moved further down to Clan creek for two or three years 

 with varying success, iloved to the flats of Canard river north of Stars point, it 

 was enlarged and very successful in its new position. Another company took the 

 old ground on Clan creek with fair success for several years. These nets were fished 

 every tide from the shore by flat punts di-awn by a horse. Another seine on a middle 

 ground near the channel of Cornwallis river was also fished by boats. In 1861 the 

 Starrs put in a large stake net on the point of flats between Canard and Cornwallis 

 rivers. It was 10 feet deep and nearly one mile long, and for eight or ten years was 

 very successful, ileantime the other stands began to fail and be abandoned, and ours 

 declined and other business pressing, we sold our rights and net to another company 

 who have continued the fishery to this day. During this time drift nets took large 

 quantities of shad. The men went out with the tide and returned on the flood. No 

 question, over-fishing had much to do with the decline. 



SAWDUST AND OTHER POLLUTIONS. 



The injurious effect of sawdust pollution have long been regarded as of the 

 gravest moment in regard to the shad fisheries. Fifty years ago Dr. Perley called 

 attention to the prevalent pollution of the Bay of Fundy rivers by sawdust and 

 mill refuse, and he expressed the view that great harm" must result therefrom to 

 the fisheries if this pollution continued. He said: 'There can be no doubt that 

 the large quantities of sawdust and rubbish from the sawmills which have been cast 

 into the harbour of St. John of late years have been highly detrimental to the 

 fisheries and most injurious to the harbour itself. The great floods of St. John, 

 occasioned by the melting of the snow and ice at the close of winter or by heavy 

 rains at other periods, bring down large quantities of fine silt, rendering the water 

 at those ijeriods extremely turbid. This alluvial matter encounters the sawdust in 

 the harbour and jointly they form a deposit which soon attains much solidity where- 

 ever it happens to rest. The western channel into the harbour has shoaled very 

 considerably as well from the deposit of silt and sawdust as the aggregation of slaba 



