52 SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY OF SAN ANTONIO 



"We do not agree with those who say that these birds should be killed 

 off. The pelicans are the great scavengers of the bays. In the old days, 

 when there were packing houses all along the coast and cattle were killed 

 for their hides and tallow, the bays were covered with pelicans and 

 comorants; while gulls, terns, and shearwaters were in the air by the 

 millions. In those days the bays were literally filled with fish, oysters, 

 shrimp, etc., and these birds were just as predaceous then as now. It is 

 not predaceous birds but predaceous MEN that need attending to. ' ' 



The Corpus Christi Caller says : 



"There is no gainsaying the fact that pelicans and other predaceous 

 water fowl are very destructive to fish, but with male man kept from 

 closed waters, we have a sneaking idea that nature will very nearly 

 balance matters, and preserve the fish supply. Man and fire-arms and 

 nets and snares have disturbed nature's balance, but with proper safe- 

 guards properly applied, there is no reason why both fish and birds can- 

 not be preserved to posterity." 



In 1913 a joint Legislative Committee of the House and Senate 

 made a tour of inspection and investigation of the State's marine 

 interests. Dr. W. B. Goodner, chairman of the committee is 

 quoted as follows : 



"Strenuous measures are demanded for the fish and oyster industry. 

 We have taken testimony on this investigation which showed often as 

 many as five 1200 foot seines have been stretched together and dragged 

 from the sterns of two boats, across the shallow bays, sweeping more 

 than one solid mile of water and taking everything before it. The testi- 

 mony of fishermen is to the effect that the seaweed gathers in the 

 meshes of these seines in such quantities that even the smallest fish are 

 dragged along and killed. They say almost every fish is killed as this 

 line of seines sweeps across the shallow waters." 



I venture to assert that in one day of this kind of fishing 

 more fish are destroyed than by all the pelicans put together. 



Hon T. S. Ross, another member of the committee, said : 



' ' Our information has been that many tons of fish have been pulled 

 ashore in years past and the most of them left on the beach. Strictest 

 laws should be enacted to protect the fish and oysters at large against 

 waste. Foreign labor has crept into our waters which has nothing at 

 heart for our State — cares nothing for our laws, and consequently gets 

 fish and oysters anywhere they can be taken with the least trouble, 

 though some waters are forbidden by law to fish in. The fact is they 

 have driven American labor from the waters." 



After duly considering these conditions, it is the opinion of 

 many of our best citizens, that undesirable people do more injury 

 to our fishing industries than undesirable birds, and those 

 authorities who have studied the habits of aquatic birds, and who 

 know a great deal more about their economic value than I do, 

 state most emphatically that it will not be necessary for any 



