12 EEPOET OF COMMISSIONEE OP FISH AND FISHEEIES. 



John D. Swan : 



I have been fishing about forty-eight years, with hook and line; have 

 never used traps or seines of any kind — nothing more than agili-net for 

 herring for bait. I have fished about Brenton's Reef, mostly for black- 

 fish, (tautog.) I think tautog is about as plenty this year as last; but 

 not so plenty as five years ago. Eighteen or twenty years agoj in two 

 hours I could get as many as I wanted. Then we got four or five cents 

 a pound at retail ; now we get eight cents. If we get fifty pounds a day 

 now, and work hard, we do a pretty good business. I sell to families ; 

 dealers give only about five cents a pound. 



I have not seen a scup this season in the water. We used to catch 

 them when fishing for tautog. I have not seen the run 'of young scup 

 that there is so much said about ; I have not seen young scup this year 

 in greater quantity than usual. 



We did not formerly catch scup with the hook until ten days after 

 they were seen. They used to run so thick that they would crowd one 

 another up out of water.* There was one place where they run over a 

 point where the water was nine feet deep, and they were so thick as to 

 be crowded out of water. I went there this spring in the month of May, 

 and did not see a scup there. 



Mr. Southwick. It was reported that scup have been seen there. 



Mr. Swan. Scup have been dwindling off ever since the traps ap- 

 peared, and I attribute the diminution to the traps. 



Mr. Southwick. I think it is due to some increase of enemies. I 

 think all fish, if left alone, would multiply at certain periods and become 

 very numerous, until their particular enemies increased and destroyed 

 their spawn. We know that all spawn has enemies. I do not think 

 there has been so much decrease as is asserted ; I think it has been 

 principally in the bays and not in the waters generally. They are 

 scarce in the bay from over-fishing by the great number of fishermen 

 around the shores. In fishing for bass, they will play with the bass they 

 hook until he drives all the other fish away. I think that has an effect 

 on the bass. The scup, I think, are affected by the impurities of the 

 water in coming up the bay. The appearance of the blue-fish and the 

 impurities of the waters from the manufactories keep out the scup. 



Mr. Swan. I have not caught a blue-fish this year except when fish- 

 ing for bass ; they are not plenty enough to be worth fishing for. 



Mr. Southwick. My observation shows that the blue-fish have been 

 less than last year. They struck in very scattering. 



Question. When were scup first seen this season % 



Mr. Southwick. Somewhere about the third of May, at Pine-Tree 

 .Cove. Frequently we do not see them, though they are in the water. 

 They swim slowly and almost always with the tide. I think they drift 

 backward and forward with the tide; unless frightened, they never go 

 against the tide. 



Mr. Obed King. There is not three days difference between Watch 

 Hill and Gay Head. This season they caught scup at Gay Head first. 



Mr. Southwick. I used to think it was safe not to put in my net at 

 Pine-Tree Cove till I heard of the fish being caught down near the light- 

 boat, off the mouth of the harbor. That was so well established as being 

 safe to act upon, that I should not hesitate now to act upon it. For 

 three years, I think, the 10th, 11th, and 12th of May were first days on 

 which scup were caught. This year they seined them about the 3d of 

 May. Sea-bass were more plenty at Saughkonet this year than last. 



Mr. Swan. I have not found them so plenty. 



Mr. Southwick. I fished at Pine-Tree Cove five years, and for the 



