200 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



shore, the returns from which were large, some of them renting ior 

 several thousand dollars. Some time during the Thirties drift nets were 

 introduced by fishermen from Delaware Eiver, and by 1835 they had 

 increased to such an extent as to embarrass the seining operations and 

 to materially lessen the profits. A convention of fishermen was held 

 at Alexandria, Ya., to protest against the use of drift nets and to take 

 measures to secure legal prohibition of them. This was the beginniDg 

 of the contest which was waged for years between the riparian owners 

 and the wandering fishermen who have successfully contested the right 

 to equal fishing privileges with the former. 



In 1871 it was reported that 24 seines were then used on the Mary- 

 land shore of the Potomac, requiring the services of G19 men, 74 boats, 

 and 51 horses, and catching in the spring of that year 110,400 shad, 

 worth $14,353. During the same year 243 drift nets were reported on 

 the same side of the river, with 161,446 square fathoms of twine, 

 requiring 456 fishermen and 213 shoresmen, catching 351,800 shad, 

 valued at $38,698, making a total of 462,200 shad, worth $53,051, taken 

 by residents of Maryland. No reliable estimates or records showing 

 the extent of the fisheries of the Virginia shore during that year are 

 available, but they have generally been more extensive than on the 

 Maryland shore. 



A fair idea of the comparative yield of shad in the Potomac during 

 the past quarter of a century may be obtained from an examination of 

 the following table showing the number of shad inspected in the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia from 1873 to 1896, inclusive, which represents from 

 50 to 75 per cent of the total yield in the river : 



The average annual yield of shad in the Potomac during recent years 

 has been about 750,000. The catch in 1896 was smaller than usual, 

 numbering 684,063, of which 450,825 were obtained by the residents of 

 Virginia and 233,238 by Maryland fishermen. An interdiction exists 

 against shad fishing within the limits of the District of Columbia. 



