46 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AXD FISHERIES. 



rels in a season of blue-fish at Great Point. Then thej' commenced net- 

 ting in the ba3^ with seine and weir and every way in which they capture 

 fish with nets. The second year after they commenced they had a net at 

 Great Point, and 1 couklnot get anything to pay at alh Mr. Snow was 

 with me then, and he has had to leave it and sell his fish-house. I pre- 

 sume a man couklnot get ten barrels of blue-fish in a season now. The 

 nets alter the course of the fish. I think the nets use them up in a 

 measure, and they drive them away. The blue-fish are not as plenty on 

 the rips anywhere outside •, they don't begin to be. I think about four- 

 teen years ago they were the most plenty; then they commenced net- 

 ting, and they have fallen off. I have stood on the south shore and 

 loaded a cart in a short time, catching them over the surf; but now 

 you could not catch half a dozen in tbe same time. 



The scup and striped-bass are used up almost entirely. They went at 

 the scup on a larger scale. Four or five years ago they commenced 

 <seiiiing scup, to take them to the New York market. Our fish come from 

 the south ; and the scup and other fish, as the temperature of the water 

 becomes right, come in and go eastward. They seine them in almost any 

 depth up to eight or ten fathoms. They seined scup in the early spring, as 

 they were passing. I have known as many as six hundred barrels seined 

 at one haul, by a man named Lamphear, up near Tnckernuck Island, and 

 he took them to I^ew York. They were taken on the muscle-beds, at 

 any time in the season for them. I think the scup spawn with us, 

 because in July you begin to see small scup — we did j^ears ago, but 

 don't now. Years ago old gentlemen used to go and sit on the wharf, 

 and in a short time catch a basketfnl ; but one may sit there now from 

 morning till night and not get one. The blue-fish are not only scarce 

 but small. This same Mr. Snow has fished with me with a hook for 

 years, and he was drawn away because he could not catch enough. 



Most of our blue-fish are passing fish, and in a month they will be 

 down east of Cape Ann. Year by year they go away eastward further 

 and further. There are no pounds on Il^antucket ; they do better with 

 gill-nets, and depend entirely on them. 



Blue-fish are very destructive to drag-nets. The reason fish are so 

 cheap is partly because they run in a great many from the provinces, 

 and blae-fish generally follow the mackerel in price, and there are still 

 many last year's mackerel on hand. Where we used to catch five or 

 six hundred barrels of blue-fish in a season, off Great Point, we cannot 

 now catch a barrel. As soon as the harbor is strung with nets the 

 blue-fish leave. All fish have their homes, and a class of fish will make 

 Great Point Eip their home if not driven away. The fisli strike our 

 shores to the westward, the herring coming first, then the mackerel, 

 the blue-fish, and scup, and all coast along down eastward. 



Question. What remedy ought to be applied to make the fish more 

 plenty ? 



Mr. WiNSLOW. Take the seines out directly ; I do not waiit a net in 

 the waters in any shape or form. If j'ou want to save the fish, you 

 must take the nets out. Any man who has observed, will say that the 

 fi.sh have depreciated very much in the last fifteen years. 



The principal food of blue-fish generally is menhaden aiul squid. 

 They can get menhaden or nmckerel all the season through. Sometimes 

 they will leave our shores for a few days and go off south of the island, 

 and when they come back they will be full of nnu'kerel. I never saw 

 any cod-fish in them. They will eat flat-fish from the bottom. The 

 menhaden are very scarce now, and I thiidv we shall lose them, too, 

 very soon, because they are using them up for oil. In this month, and 



