102 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



justice of the business, whicli lie should have been the first and most 

 active to i)umsh. 



But the people of the Atlantic shores, as a people, have some interest 

 in the continuance of the fisheries themselves, and know and can know 

 of no private or corporate interest so great as to be long permitted at 

 the risk of their exhaustion. Enough has been proved to show that 

 the traps and pounds are one great cause, if not the only cause of the 

 scarcity of the food-fishes of the coast, and the people demand and have 

 the right to demand that they be abalished altogether, or so regulated 

 that the fish may pass along the shore to their accustomed places to 

 spawn. 



The trappers have had their way and filled their jjockets during the 

 past seventeen years, and the fishes have become scarce. Let the poorer 

 hand-line fishermen have their way for a few years, and you will see 

 that the fishes are as abundant as formerly. Tiie proverb that " there 

 are as good fish in the sea as have been caught," was only good until 

 trapping began, and the theory that any scarcity of fish during one 

 season will be made up by increased numbers from the great sea the next, 

 is only a poor conjecture. 



We admit that there is a great fishing interest involved in the trap- 

 ping of fish, as the fishing business is now carried on, but we do not 

 admit that sufficient bait for the mackerel and cod fishermen cannot be 

 obtained in some other w^ay not prejudicial to the other fisheries. A 

 proper regulation of the traps with respect to the time of their being 

 set an I taken up would permit their use for catching menhaden, but- 

 were they prohibited altogether, there is no good reason to suppose that 

 the Gloucester fishermen would suffer for want of bait. Let it be known 

 when and where the bait was wanted, and thousands of our fishermen, 

 with nothing now to do, with their shore-nets would supply it in the 

 greatest abundance, at no higher cost, in better condition, and just where 

 and when it was wanted. 



Perhaps not so many fish would be cast upon the land or ground up 

 into phosphates, but more would be for sale for food and as much for 

 bait. 



Nor will a law protecting the fisheries necessarily throw men out of 

 employment, but, on the contrary, will make business for a much larger 

 number. That great class of hardj^ fishermen so feelingly spoken of 

 by the senator of the Cape district, will not only become more numer- 

 ous, but be better rewarded b}^ a proper regulation of the fisheries. 

 How many hook-and-line fishermen equally as worthy a^s those who 

 have lain down to rest in a Newfoundland fog, have been thrown out of 

 employment by the greed of the trappers in their unconscionable, ever- 

 lasting hunt after that '• last dollar," and lain down to rest in as gloomy 

 a solitude, in the fog of New England ! 



It is only necessary to prohibit the traps for awhile, and regulate the 

 time and extent of such fishing hereafter, and it will result for the per- 

 manent good of the trappers themselves, for tlie good of these hardy 

 fishermen on the whole, and for the benefit of the thousands who could 

 once find a living on our shores, now so depopulated of the fishes the 

 catching of which gave them employment and heretofore furnished 

 them with food. 



I am satisfi(Hl that further commissions and investigating committees 

 will do no good. What availed the sixty-two thousand (questions of the 

 royal commission, or the eighty-two questions of the ivhode Island 

 committee, or all the oral testinu)ny of the Uhode Island and Massa- 

 oluisetts investigations i The trappers are always able to throw more 



