INTERIM REPORT 97 



Thirtieth Sitting. 



CotJHT House, Dorchesteb, October 14, 1908. 



The sitting was opened in the usual formal manner by Professor Prince, as chair- 

 man, and Commissioners Morrison and Melanson followed with some introductory 

 observations. 



Fraxk L. Dobsox, Beaumost, formerly of Boudreau's village, stated that he was 

 bom and brought up where the shad fishing 25 or 30 years ago employed eighty boats 

 in a mile of the river. No doubt over a hundred boats in all in the locality. The 

 catches weekly from Sunday to Wednesday were often 1,500 shad to one boat with two 

 men. My imele would get 1,200 going down as far as Grindstone island and then com- 

 ing back for salt when he cured them or left them for some one to cure while he drift- 

 ed down again. If only 500 or 600 were got in three days fishing it was considered a 

 poor catch. The boats were full of shad. There were no regulations. The shad fish- 

 ing was from June 20 to Sept 30 or even into October. The run was extra large and 

 fat, but about the middle of the season they were thinner and smaller. The September 

 shad were prime, and my father was imder a bargain to pick out the best shad at 10 

 cents each, and he always made up a barrel of September shad for himself. There was 

 little sale for fresh shad and they were exported salted down. We supplied the salt. 

 They were repacked in barrels and shipped to New York and other United States 

 markets. The residents practically made a business of it and between cropping time 

 and harvest they fished shad. A man could have as large a net as he could handle, 

 viz., about 250 fathoms. Drift nets were principally used but weirs were btiilt which 

 were not a success. One was built a mile or more from the mouth of Petitcodiac river 

 on the east side of brush for shad. Stake nets down at Grande Anse took shad and 

 salmon. As to small shad I have seen small shad three inches long in the pond of the 

 quarry of the company of which I am manager. These small shad come in from the 

 Petitcodiac river, they must come down the river. I saw some this year in August 

 or latter part of July, two or three on several occasions, some being dead. The pond 

 water is sea water. One I found the other day fast in the derrick chain which the tide 

 covers. It was nine inches long and got fast and was left after the tide had gone 

 down. The shad in the middle of the season were smaller than the first run and the 

 last. Memramcook river dries up at low tide. Shad was our staple fish and its low 

 price put it in the reach of everybody. I feel very much interested as shad are a fine 

 food for the whole people, and the sale helped the poor people out. I like them better 

 than any other fish. The shad fishery benefited the fishermen, the working people and 

 were a benefit all round. I may add that shad were got at the spawning season at the 

 tail of Holme's mills on Petitcodiac river. 



S. L. Chapmax, Dorchester, said: I carried on a correspondence in the St. John 

 Telegraph from eight or nine years ago to five or sis years ago on the matter of the 

 north shore (Bay des Chaleurs) shad. Officer Hetherington joined in. I have known 

 the shad industry for forty years and was interested in a boat as well as handled shad. 

 The price split and trimmed was 3 cents and they were peddled all round for 4 cents, 

 but 25 cents is now the standard price — sometimes 35 or 40 cents for roe shad in spring 

 for St. John shad. This year the supply only continued one week. There are different 

 kinds of shad, the St. John river shad and this river being identical, some of them 

 being male and some unspawned shad, but the north shore shad are a difi'erent shape, 

 being an ocean shad, like the ocean sturgeon which differs from the lake sturgeon. 

 My opinion is that shad migrate long distances, but the local varieties remain dis- 

 tinct. The skeleton of the north (Chaleur) shad is more stable and more boney so as 

 to resist greater pressure as if it was a deep-water fish. Shad return to our rivers as 

 the temperature cools. The fall shad are not mature and have not spawned, but next 



