370 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
gradually grew in importance until in 1880 there were upwards of sixty large and small factories 
in that region, that employed seven hundred and eight fishermen and factory hands, and that pro. 
duced oil and guano valued at $303,829, 
11. PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION. 
The States of Maine and Massachusetts have enacted several laws for the protection of the 
menhaden fishery. The most important law in Maine, passed in 186566, prohibited the setting of 
any seine within three miles of the shore for the purpose of taking menhaden, but “‘a net of no 
more than one hundred and forty meshes shall not be deemed a seine.” 
In Massachusetts “fishing with seines in the Merrimac, when the menhaden stand in, is for- 
bidden by law. The mouth of the river has, however, never been defined by the governcer as 
permitted by statute; and it was represented to the commissioners that valuable menhaden fish- 
eries existed in this neutral ground of brackish water. Therefore, under the personal promise of 
the fishermen to capture no shad or salmon, and with the guarantee of responsible persons in 
Newburyport, the commissioners agreed to defer the definition of the river-mouth, and to assume 
that these menhaden were not positively included in the river proper.” * 
Since the general adoption of the purse-seine there has been considerable opposition to this 
apparatus on the ground that it is destructive to the fishery. Congress and State legislatures 
have been petitioned to prohibit the use of inenhaden seines within certain specified tracts of water, 
such as the Chesapeake Bay and the coast of New Jersey. During the winter of 1882 the legislature 
of the latter State passed restrictive laws, but the governor of the State vetoed the laws as uncon- 
stitutional, since, by the law, the State claimed jurisdiction within three miles of the coast, whereas 
the attorney-general of that State decided that no jurisdiction could be claimed beyond low-water 
mark. 
Congress having been petitioned to pass laws prohibiting the capture of menhaden during the 
spawning season, a sub-committee of the Committee on Foreign Relations was appointed by 
Senate resolution of July 26, 1882, to examine, in conjunction with the Commissioner of Fish and 
Fisheries, into the subject of the protection to be given by law to the fish and fisheries on the 
Atlantic coast. This committee, during the season of 1882 and 1883, visited various parts of the 
coast and took considerable testimony from fishermen and menhaden oil manufacturers. The report 
of the committee,t submitted June 17, 1884, recommends (1) ‘“‘That the use of purse and pound- 
nets, fyke or weir, in the waters of the Atlantic outside low-water mark should be absolutely pro- 
hibited within 3 miles of the shore prior to the first day of June in each year south of a line drawn 
east from the south cape of the Chesapeake Bay and prior to the 1st of July north of that line, with 
suitable penalties for any violation of the law in this respect; (2) That the use of meshes in such 
nets of less than 14 inches bar measure should in like manner be prohibited at all seasons so as to 
prevent the taking of young and immature fish.” 
12, THE MENHADEN FISHERY AT THE EAST END OF LONG ISLAND; 1793 TO 1880. 
The capture of menhaden for fertilizing purposes at Long Island, N. Y., began about a hun- 
dred years ago. Mr. B. F. Conklin, of Jamesport, N. Y., a veteran fisherman of more than fifty 
years’ experience, gives the following account of the sale history of the fishery at the eastern end 
of Long Island. He says: : 
“According to the best information I have been able to gather from old inhabitants, the use 
“Report of the Commissioners of Inland Fisheries for 1877, p. 65. 
tSenate Report No. 706, 48th Congress, lst session, pp. xxiv, 377. 
