REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XXIX 



point to the enormous number of eggs laid by a single fish in each sea- 

 son, amounting in some instances to perhaps from five thousand to hun- 

 dreds of thousands, or even millions, since this immense fecundity is an 

 absolute necessity to preserve the balance of life under the water. The 

 eggs and the young fish furnish the appointed food to an immense 

 variety of animals, many species offish as well as crustaceans and other 

 animals depending entirely upon them for their support. Among the 

 particular enemies of the eggs and the young fry may be enumerated 

 the small minnows or cyprinodonts, the atherinas, silver-sides or friars, 

 the cunners or chogset, the young of many larger fish, the different kinds 

 of minute crustaceans, including also the lobsters, &c. These are not in- 

 terfered with to any material extent by any form of net, as they are 

 too small to furnish profitable employment in their capture, and they 

 pass readily through the meshes of any nets that would be set for other 

 purposes. Although, therefore, the amount of spawn and of young fish 

 may be materially less than a previous average, the predacious animals 

 just referred to w^ll probably still destroy as many as ever, since they 

 have every opportunity for picking up their prey at all times ; and what- 

 ever the scarcity at first, they are likely to get all they require. For this 

 reason, we cannot count upon the increase of the fish that escape the 

 perils of their journey to furnish a sufficient supply, since if half the 

 young brood is lost by means of the capture of the parents through 

 human agencies, before and during the spawning season, a very large 

 percentage of the remainder is prevented from attaining, maturity by 

 other enemies. 



As most fish require from three to five years of growth before they are 

 capable of reproduction, and in many cases remain in the open sea until 

 this period is reached, it will follow that for several years after the estab- 

 lishment of an exhausting fishery the supply may appear to be but little 

 interfered with, since there are several successive crops of fish to come 

 on at the annual intervals, and not until the entire round has been com- 

 pleted do these injurious agencies begin to present the evidence of their 

 severity. It is easy, therefore, to understand why, after five or ten 

 years' fishing, the supply of fish in a given bay, or along a certain stretch 

 of the coast, will be reduced to a very considerable degree, and although it 

 may be perfectly true that the sea is practically inexhaustible of its 

 fish, yet if the fish of a particular region are cleaned out, there is no 

 hope that others will come in from surrounding localities to take their 

 places, since those already related to a given undisturbed area continue 

 in that relationship, and have no inducement to change their ground. 

 It should therefore be understood that the exhaustion of a local fishery 

 is not like dipping water out of a bucket, where the vacancy is immedi- 

 ately filled from the surrounding body ; but it is more like taking lard 

 out of a keg, where there is a space left that does not become occupied 

 by anything else. 



These considerations also furnish a sufficient answer to the objection 



