100 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



It is evident that something has occurred during the past seventeen 

 years to cause the food- fishes of the waters of Massachusetts and Khode 

 Island to become scarce. It has not been satisfactorily accounted for 

 in either of the four ways above considered. During those years, but 

 one other cause can be found which has existed in both States at the 

 same time which did not exist before, and that cause is the unre- 

 strained catching of these fishes by traps, pounds, weirs, heart-seines, 

 and the like. 



It is certainly very remarkable that these four fishes should all agree 

 to become scarce in both States upon the setting up of the traps and 

 to grow scarcer and scarcer, year after year, as the traps increased, if 

 either of the above causes assigned for such scarcity was the true cause. 



Was not a temporary absence of these fishes likely to occur before Mr. 

 Tallman invented a pound ? Was never food for these fishes scarce till 

 trapping commenced"? Were not the substances sent into the waters 

 from Providence, Fall Kiver, and New Bedford, deleterious till then ? 

 Has the nature of the blue-fish changed since the traps were set ? 

 Oould he live in the same waters peaceably with all these fishes and not 

 before become voracious and destructive ? If not, even then ought the 

 traps to be abolished, if by reason of them, however indirectly, the fish 

 absent themselves, or their food becomes scarce, or the waters become 

 poisonous, or the blue-fish becomes savage. 



Such extraordinary effects, threatening the entire destruction of the 

 fisheries, depopulating our waters, depriving us of food, ought not to be 

 continued if the removal of the traps and pounds will prevent it. One 

 point further, going to show that the traps and pounds are a proba- 

 ble cause of the scarcity complained of: the thirty -third interrogatory 

 of the Rhode Island commission is, "Do you know of your own knowl- 

 edge, or did you hear whether the traps at Seconnet Point were broken 

 up during the year 1862, and also in 1867 or 1868, for how long a time 

 were they displaced, and by what wind, and about what date, and what 

 was the fishing for scup those seasons compared with the previous and 

 suceeding year ? 



Twelve of the witnesses gave full or partial answers, and proved that 

 the traps were broken up in 1862 and again in 1867, and that the catch 

 of scup, by the hand-line fishermen, during those years, was greater 

 than during the preceding or following years. I grant that these facts 

 are not conclusive upon the point, but they are significant, and have 

 sufficient bearing to entitle them to consideration in the case, and go to 

 strengthen the testimony of most of the witnesses when asked to give 

 their opinion as to the true cause of the scarcity about which they had 

 testified. 



It is not necessary to review particularly the evidence given as to the 

 cause of the scarcity of these fishes. It is enough that in both Ubode 

 Island and Massachusetts almost the unanimous voice of the witnesses 

 was, that it is the traps and nothing but the traps. 



Whether the opinions of these men are of little or much worth, they 

 are, as I liave before said, the best evidence we can have until the 

 Government collects the statistics, and all the facts are ascertained. 

 We are glad that some steps in the right direction have been taken, 

 and that a man so well (pialified for the work as Professor Baird has 

 undertaken the investigation. That there are many and great diffi- 

 culties attending the subject there can be no doubt, but they are never 

 likely to be less, and the longer the matter is delayed the greater pro- 

 l)orti()ns they will assunu^ 



Jn Mr. Atwood's remarks to the senate, he says, "It this legislature 



