96 SBAD FISHERY COMMISSION 



shad still rau. If the season is good the run is late and the average size large, but the 

 fish are small when the run is small. Twelve years ago I got 800 one night, they were 

 well off shore. The first year the falling off began there was gun firing at St. John, 

 and ever since much mud has been dumped into the water, while pulp mill waste gas 

 ■waste, &c., have been an injury. When the guns fire or there is thunder we get no 

 fall shad. We all know that shad are getting scarce, and it is hatcheries that are 

 ■wanted. If hatched in St. John river they are bound to come back. We get poor shad 

 ' come-backs ' not more than three or four in a year. They are taken by salmon nets 

 four, eight or ten miles out. If shad fishing were stopped in every place for five years 

 it ■would be best for improving the fishery. 



Samuel Gwenn, Musquash, said: I am a fisherman and I farm a little. My 

 father caught lots of shad on Musquash river in the salt water up the river, but in 

 my time no shad oecurredi There are two mills now, but formerly three, twelve miles 

 up, and they dumped in their sawdust, and there are dams at the mills. The river is 

 one mile wide where the shad were taken. 



George Fergusox, Lorneville, said : I knew the shad fishing 30 years ago and for 

 ten years (down to twenty years) the shad were as scarce as now. Then eighteen 

 years ago they improved, and sixteen years ago a man would take 3,000 fish in the sea- 

 son, sometimes 950 in a night. They kept up good for four or five years, and then for 

 ten or twelve years they have dropped off. It ■was fall shad fishing formerly then later 

 twenty years since spring iishing began. We use 40 mesh nets but 38 formerly. Spring 

 shad swim deeper than fall shad. I have seen shad as small as sand jumpers. At 

 Black's harbour I have seen little shad four inches long, showing the shad spots on 

 them in the ■weirs, in the fall I think when salmon were being caught. The fishery 

 would be helped if spring shad fishing were stopped but the St. John harbour weirs 

 ■would take them and can't be stopped as the city has fishing rights. Shad fishing is 

 stopi)ed on Friday nights but the harbour ■weirs are made an exception it is said. Of 

 course, spring fishing must cease on the United States coast rivers or full benefit will 

 not follow and international regulations should be made. 



George H. Galbraith said that spring shad are always larger than the fall shad, 

 but the latter may not go up for a year to spawn. Fall shad must have spawned some 

 where. The ' come-backs ' go into deep water on reaching the sea. We get a num- 

 ber of spent salmon in shad nets but not in salmon nets. We have got salmon from 

 the government pond, St. John, but never noticed any marks on them. We got cod 

 with a mark on the tail and fin cut off. They are cod from the Main United States 

 hatcheries because we see the fins have been cut off. I did not get them myself. Eels 

 and pickerel damage salmon spawn and hatcheries for shad would have the same good 

 results as salmon hatcheries. 



jAiiES Eeid said that some men took salmon all the time and observed no Sunday 

 close time. This ought to be stopped. Three hundred salmon have been caught on 

 Sunday and we who keep Sunday are at a disadvantage. The late inspector did not 

 enforce the law. The fish thus cannot get into the rivers. The time should be longer 

 viz., T a.m., Saturday to 3 p.m. Monday instead of 12 Saturday to 12 Sundav night. 



