XXXII REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



ing, and gathers it inside of the net, involving the destruction of all 

 life that may be inclosed. This evil has not manifested itself in America, 

 owing to the almost entire absence of trawl-net fishing, as it has in 

 Europe, where it is considered as doing much more mischief than all 

 other modes of fishing put together. Should this engine of destruction 

 come into general use on our coast and add its agency to those already 

 referred to in connection with the pounds and weirs, the diminution of 

 the supply may coutinue to go on in a vastly greater ratio than ever. 



We have now considered at considerable length the influences sepa- 

 rately exerted by the blue-fish and by human agencies upon the number 

 of food-fishes on our coast; and we next proceed, as a sixth division of 

 the subject, to discuss the result of their combined action, especially in 

 view of the great destruction of the spawning fish. 



While, perhaps, in view of the wonderful fecundity of fishes, the blue- 

 fish alone, or the traps alone, might not produce any serious consequences 

 upon the general supply, their combination in any locality cannot fail 

 to have a very decided effect; as what the one spares the other destroys 

 in large part; and in the enormous consumption in addition of the eggs 

 and young fish by the minor inhabitants of the water, we can easily 

 imagine how speedily an approximation toward extermination may be 

 effected. 



My explorations, as already referred to, have shown the existence in 

 the waters, in addition to the larger kinds and their young, of immense 

 numbers of small species of fish, such as the friar or atherina, the vari- 

 ous species of cyprinodouts, &c, occurring in great numbers, and feeding 

 almost exclusively upon the spawn and young of fish. These, it has been 

 shown, are not affected by any modes of fishing, and in fact, if anything, 

 are more abundant than ever, in consequence of the diminution of larger 

 fish by which they are devoured in turn. Some are resident in particular 

 places along the shore, while others move along the coast in large bodies. 

 Being always on the grounds and congregating upon the spawning-beds, 

 they are engaged in a continual work of destruction, and when the ordinary 

 ratios have not been disturbed they simply tend to prevent an overpro- 

 duction of the different species of fish ; but if other causes of diminu- 

 tion co-operate when they have devoured their share, and the different 

 c ustaceans, star-fishes, &c, have been kept supplied, the percentage 

 of eggs left for development and of young fish for attaining maturity 

 becomes less year by year until practical extermination may follow. 



As far as the blue-fish is concerned, however, if it were even possible 

 to drive it off by any human agency, the fishermen of the south coast 

 of New England would strenuously object, since, after its appearance 

 on the coast, in May or June, it is the most important food- fish to be 

 taken ; and, as will be observed by the testimony presented, it was as 

 much the diminution of the blue-fish as of any other species that ex- 

 cited the apprehension and alarm of the fishermen. It is, however, in 

 all probability, the increasing scarcity of the shore-fishes that has in- 



