IXJEIilM UEI-OiiT 59 



Ihe livera then. Tliey are about all gone now, and have been getting scarcer because 

 ot the destruction of the spawning fish. These spawn shad are the older shad of the 

 bay. When old enough they get away from the younger ones like all other things. 

 Later the younger ones will do the same. As a merchant in Great Village, I handled 

 great quantities of shad. I have tried for fifteen or twenty years to get a law for the 

 shad like that for the salmon as it is worth ten times more than the salmon. From 

 here to Five Islands we have caught 10,000 barrels formerly but this year probably ten 

 certainly not twenty barrels have been taken. I have sold 4,000 barrels in a year and 

 gave $10 to $12 per barrel down the shore and I did not handle more than a quarter 

 of the catch. Some of the shad came from Tenecape and the other shore. They were 

 shipped mostly to the United States, but many were sold fresh and salted, although 

 they were principally salted until recently. The people even used to come from Shu- 

 benacadie because they did not know that they had shad in their own river. They 

 paid $i per 100. Their shad are large but very poor and I would not eat them. A 

 good shad is the most palatable fish we can get and in winter salt shad is better than 

 -any other fish. We get orders in for shad every day and they cannot be supplied. I 

 would like to see them more plentiful. We could sell all the shad we could get. It 

 is a good food and it pays the fisherman to catch them. It means money circulated 

 all through the poor people's pockets. Then there are the barrels, nets and the boat 

 builders all benefit by the fishery. The best step is a close season from September 25 

 to June 20 next, following for a short time. As to the migrations of shad, &c., we 

 often scooped up little fish two to four inches long in millions after the run of shad 

 wa^ almost over. I have seen a weir at Bass river in which multitudes of these small 

 iish were killed, when I hired with Fulton long ago. The sweep net swept these little 

 fish on to the beach. Most of them went out as the water went out. They were young 

 Shubenacadie fry coming down in August or September. Salmon are increasing 

 ■owing to the breeding of them. An average .fisherman should secure 400 salmon iu 

 the season. If the mesh of the salmon net were increased they might not get enough 

 fish as our fish average five to seven pounds each. The largest salmon caught iu the 

 bay that I have bought was twenty pounds. I have bought more of the larger salmon 

 than I commonly did ranging from twelve to twenty pounds. Of course a twenty 

 pound salmon is equal in weight and value to five fish of four pounds each. On the 

 river here there is a pond in which there were lots of little salmon this year, and being 

 small we thought that they were trout. The better catches of the fishermen and these 

 small fish all show that the salmon fishery could be improved greatly, but mine refuse 

 (slag) is put in above and comes down discolouring the water, while coal washing from 

 the coke making discolours the water in the river. The mines do much harm by not 

 taking care of their refuse. 



George Barnes, Spencer's Point, said I am a shad fisherman and I recollect as 

 far back as 45 years. I fished every year in that time excepting one year. The shad 

 come into the bay to feed. Their feed is suction, but they also eat a long green worm. 

 a sandworm and small bugs called ' shad feed ' very plentiful and thick and J-ineh 

 long. They are greenish and we find them oil the nets, ily brother found and I have 

 found a bug in the stomach the shad fed on. The largest shad I have got was six 

 l>ounds iu weight. The food has not wholly gone from the banks as we get it. Early 

 in spring we may get one or two big shad coming down from the Shubenacadie and 

 Stcwiacke rivei-s. but our shad don't spavm this year, they are in my opinion the same 

 "breed of shad. We'd like to see the shad back as soon as possible and the causes of 

 til'? decline I think are: — (1) Killing the spawn fish on the Shubenacadie that is one 

 thing. (2) Weirs which I am sure could be rigged up so as to liberate the small ones, 

 tbou-ands of little ones are left on the beach to rot. I don't want to catch all the fish 

 myself, I want others to have a chance. (-3) Dirt and sawdust are both bad, I have 

 seen sawdust in the gills of a shad. Three or four sawmills on each river pouring 

 their sawdust into the bay all along this shore is most harmful. The ' lN"est ' is an 



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