76 Fish, Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 



CHAPTEE Xm. 



Ebie Hatchbky — Kestoeing the Lake Fishebees. 



From the previous chapter it will be seen to what an enormous extent 

 the fisheries of Lake Erie were conducted on the Pennsylvania borders, 

 and yet this was but a tithe of the work of this character that was car- 

 ried on elsewhere. Here, too, is the same wretched story of wantoa 

 destruction of food fishes and utter disregard for the future that has 

 been totd of the fisheries of the Delaware, Schuylkill and other water- 

 ways of the state. Previous to 1848, and the introduction of the vil- 

 lainous pound nets, white fish were, as already noted, abundant, but 

 these destructive traps, together with the effect of human avarice, dis- 

 regarding the times and mode of capture, worked the inevitable, disas- 

 trous result. Little by little the white fish industry declined, until 

 about 1885, from a profitable business the catching of white fish became 

 unprofitable, and as an exclusive industry was almost abandoned. The 

 blue pike fishing, which had occupied second place, and the herring 

 filling, which was still further down on the list, forged to the front and 

 became the chief industries. 



Besides this, by an almost utter disregard of the spawning season, 

 piratical fishermen inside the harbor of Erie had quite depleted what 

 was formerly an inviting field for black bass and other game fish. Even 

 at the present time in defiance of the laws, and of the knowledge of the 

 evil Consequences thereof, there are men who ply their nefarious trade 

 in the waters of the bay. During a good portion of the past winter, 

 nets were set through the ice, and it was not an unusual thing, it is said, 

 to see black bass exposed for sale in the market freshly caught. So 

 frequently indeed was this done that the Erie Herald, on March 18 of 

 the present year, published the following: 



"The mayor and councils should do something at once to break up il- 

 legal fishing in the bay. Now that the land is disappearing the pirates 

 have commenced to set nets and the hauls have been very good. If the 

 pirates are not run down, hook and line fishing in the bay will be entirely 

 destroyed. 



"A policeman should be assigned to duty as a fish warden, and if the 

 pirates are caught they should be dealt with to the full extent of the 

 law. 



"Fish were offered for sale on the street market this morning which 

 were captured with nets in the bay. A 12-pound pike showed signs of 

 life when exposed for sale, showing that it had been lifted out of the 



