IV REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Originating in an inquiry instituted by Congress " with the view of 

 ascertaining whether any and what diminution in the number of the 

 food fishes of the coast and lakes of the United States has taken place," 

 the Commissioner was directed " should such diminution be ascertained 

 to have taken place" to investigate the causes of the same and report 

 to Congress " whether any and what protective, prohibitory, or pre- 

 cautionary measures should be adopted in the premises." 



The fact that there had been a disastrous decline in the annual yield 

 of both the coast and river fisheries of New England was clearly in- 

 dicated by the investigations into the conditions of these fisheries, which 

 had been conducted by the State authorities of Massachusetts, Rhode 

 Island, and Connecticut.* 



The fishery interests that were placed at a disadvantage by the intro- 

 duction of pounds and traps sought, through their respective legisla- 

 tures, to secure the enactment of laws prohibiting the use of fixed 

 apparatus for the capture of fish. 



The contention before the legislative committees charged with the 

 consideration of the subject developed a great variety of opinions, 

 which naturally grew out of the diversity and antagonism of interests 

 involved, and led to the conviction on the part of those who desired to 

 conserve the paramount public interest without making unfair or in- 

 vidious discrimination in respect to the conflicting methods pursued, 

 that the basis for rational legislation in respect to the fisheries could 

 only be laid after a careful and comprehensive study of the matter in 

 all its relations from a disinterested standpoint. 



It was this informal consensus of opinion that led to the introduction 

 into the House of Representatives by the Hon. IT. L. Dawes, then a 

 member from Massachusetts, of the joint resolution for the protection 

 and preservation of the food fishes of the coast of the United States, 

 which became a law on the 9th of February, 1871. 



This bill, while responding to the immediate exigency and demand, 

 is prophetic in the completeness with which it makes provision for that 

 evolution of the Fish Commission by which it has come to be the con- 

 servator and custodian of an important economic resource for our peo- 

 ple — a resource which can not, except in small measure, be appropri- 

 ated or segregated by individuals, as our lands, our forests, and our 

 mines may be and are, but which must for all time be maintained by 

 the Government for the common use. 



The alleged deterioration of the coast and river fisheries of New 

 England having been abundantly confirmed by the investigations of 



* The cause assigned by those who complained most of the result was the multipli- 

 cation of traps and pounds which captured fish of all hinds in great numbers, and as 

 was supposed in greater quantities than the natural fecundity of the fish could 

 make good year by year, especially in view of the fact that these catches were made 

 during the spawning season, thus destroying many of the fertile fish and prevent- 

 ing others from depositing their eggs. (S. F. Baird, Report of the Condition of the 

 Sea Fisheries of the South Coast of New England in 1871 and 187^., p, 8.) 



