Part III. 



INTERIM EEPORT 



OF THE 



SHAD FISHERY COMMISSION 



1908-1909 



To the Honourable L. P. Brobelr, 



The Minister of Marine and Fisheries, 

 Ottawa. 



Sir, — We, as the members of the commission appointed to investigate the shad 

 fisheries of the Bay of Fundy and adjacent waters, have completed our inquiries and 

 at thirty-two public sittings have received a large amount of valuable evidence from 

 fishermen, fish dealers and other parties interested in this important industry. 



We found wherever we went in the course of our investigations that the action 

 of the government in moving in the matter received the warm approbation of the 

 public generally, and in view of the fact that the shad fishery as a valuable industry 

 and a source of food supply has reached a most critical stage and will be wholly a 

 thing of the past unless adequate restorative measures be immediately devised and 

 executed, the work of the commission was regarded as most opportune. 



CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES AND CAUSES. 



In our full and final report, to follow this interim report, we shall deal in detail 

 with the points here referred to incidentally, but we feel bound to report that the 

 opinion universally prevails amongst those interested that the decline of the shad is so 

 serious as to demand urgent means for its improvement. Various causes are adduced 

 to account for its present serious condition and the necessity of ^effective measures 

 being carried out immediately. It is a remarkable circumstance that the shad is only 

 mentioned in the Fisheries Act in a subsection of minor prominence, and in the 

 regulations the shad fishery, so vital and valuable to the maritime provinces, has not 

 received, heretofore, the adequate recognition to which its importance entitles it, and 

 is referred to only in certain subsidiary clauses in the Xew Brunswick and Xova Scotia 

 Fishery Regulations. The salmon and the shad fisheries are most intimately con- 

 nected in the Bay of Fundy waters, both fish being caught mainly in the same nets and 

 during the same period of the year. The salmon has steadily increased in quantity and 

 also in the size of the fish, an improvement it is universally agreed, directly due to 

 the propagation of these fish by the Dominion government hatcheries. While this is 



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