THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 61 
The question has been largely discussed by the press, the State 
and National Fish Commissions, and in the United States Sen- 
ate. The latter has appointed a Committee on Fisheries, with 
Hon. E. G. Lapham as chairman. This committee has for the 
past two years taken the testimony of all classes of fishermen, 
and obtained the views and theories of fish-culturists and ichthy- 
ologists. And, in addition to this, we have the valuable inform- 
ation and statistics gathered with great care by Prof. S. F. Baird, 
the eminent Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries of the United 
States. 
It has been my privilege to assist in obtaining information on 
the subject for the Senate Committee, the United States Fish 
Commission, and the New York State Fishery Commission, and 
I have read with great interest all of the evidence that has been 
taken by them bearing on this subject. And now, in discussing 
the question as to the advisability of any legislation to protect 
the ocean or sea fisheries, it is best to look over the facts which 
have thus far been brought out and see what would be the best 
way to provide for the continuance of the abundant supply that 
we now enjoy. 
The first thing that we want to ascertain is whether what we 
know as salt-water fish, are scarcer now than in former times, 
and I would say here, that the absence of statistics covering any 
considerable space of time, makes an answer to this question 
somewhat difficult, but, thanks to the New York Fishmongers’ 
Association, and to the Boston Fish Bureau, a beginning has 
been made to supply this hiatus, and it is hoped that the Nation- 
al Government will very soon take definite measures for the pur 
pose of getting, annually, correct statistics of the amount of fish 
caught in the waters and on the coast of the United States. Hav- 
ing been a dealer in fresh fish in Fulton Market, New York, for 
the past seventeen years, I have had the opportunity of noticing 
during this period, the varying supply of various kinds of fish, 
and I beg leave to submit my views as to the scarcity or plenti- 
fulness of some of these various species. 
First and most important of all our fishes is the cod. I believe 
that there has been no considerable diminution in quantity in the 
last decade, judging from the quantity brought to market and 
