INTERIM REPORT 93 



Black's liarboui" quite a few have been taken. No doubt a hatchery or two would be 

 a great benefit and the fish would be restored if the material could be collected to run 

 them. It might be well to start a small one. 



J. F. BelyeAj Dominion Fishery Overseer said: that the decrease in the shad be- 

 gan with the big gun firing at Fort Dufferin. The continual practice drove them 

 away. The early mother fish go up the river first when the fine weather comes. They 

 go to llcCormick's Cove and their spawn deposited in deep water is lost, unlike the 

 later fish which go to the shallows and the spawn is not lost. The parent fish lead the 

 young out. Recently the young began to stay in the harbour all the time because there 

 were no old fish, no big fish to lead them. Just as large black salmon descend at the 

 same time as the ' parr ' so the ' racers ' and the young shad descend together. It is 

 rare for a racer to be seen on the market as no one will buy them and they are often 

 dumped out. Formerly if the up-river men got fish they could not market them, but 

 now they can sell them. Hence the fishing formerly was limited. The early fish are 

 fished for by dissolute characters and a lot of nets are destroyed. In the early spring 

 the men go out but they can't drift outside, because there are so many cross currents. 

 There may be a strong tide down and an up-tide on top. Small alewilves 

 were caught this year, but there is no regulation to meet it, i.e., to save the big fish 

 only. A door is no good and O'Brien's fish escape not worth anything. There were 

 so many small fish in some weirs that I got the men to open their weirs and let them 

 go. I got them to put a gate in the weir. The fish retained, all die. A 2i-inch mesh, 

 extension measure vertically is good. Fishermen have been careful of small fish and 

 small sturgeon. They liberate small sturgeon and lamper eels, the latter do no harm 

 'and do not destroy fish. It would help the officers if the term foul or unclean fish 

 (shad and salmon) were defined, officially. 



Murray Stackhouse, Fisherman, Carleton, said: I have experience with drift- 

 ing and weirs and fish for shad, alewives and salmon. In winter I have other work. 

 Shad have become scarcer for twelve or fourteen years. Gaspereaux never leave this 

 harbour, any fine day in winter they can be caught. It would not pay now to filt out, 

 but we have boats and gear. When the ' come-backs ' descend there is a big run all 

 at onoe, they rush past. There are two runs of tide and we may get 100 or 200 ' come- 

 backs ' at high water at dusk, i.e., slack water. Coming dark and coming daylight are 

 the best fishing time. Fish stop in Grand lake and the men set nets on the thorough- 

 fares and set right across. The local men up there have more chance to get them than 

 we have. Day told me that he fished fifteen or twenty short nets and got 200 barrels 

 of gaspereaux in a season, and he wanted me to go up and fish with him. On Little 

 river the men set nets at dusk and after lifting the nets, clean the shad and then go to 

 their farmers' work. Eels eat the fish meshed in the nets. The way the salmon hat- 

 chery improved the salmon supply shows that a shad hatchery -would be a great benefit. 

 I agree in the main with Mr. Hamed's evidenca. It is what nine out of ten of the 

 fishermen would say if present here to-day. 



Twenty-ninth Sitting. 



School House, Lorneville, X.B.. Oct. 12, 1908. 



Professor Prince. Mr. S. F. Morrison and ilr- S. !^[ela^son, Commissioners, 

 opened the proceedings, and there was a very large attendance of fishermen, residents 

 of the localitj-. Evidence was taken ns follows: — 



.3494—10* 



