VIII REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



of the result was the multiplication of "traps" and "pounds,," which 

 captured fish of all kinds in great numbers, and, as was supposed, in 

 greater quantity 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, thereby destroying many of the 

 fertile fish and preventing others from depositing their eggs. 



Petitions were presented to the legislatures of both these States 

 in the winter of 1869-'70, asking that a law be passed prohibiting the 

 use of fixed apparatus for capturing fish ; and the whole subject came 

 before special committees of the legislatures, and was discussed in all 

 its bearings. The Massachusetts committee, of which Captain Nathan- 

 iel Atwood, of Provincetown, was chairman, after considering the evi- 

 dence adduced, decided that there was no reasonable ground for the 

 complaint, and that any action on the part of tBe State was inexpedi- 

 ent. (See page 117 of the present report.) 



On the other hand, the Ehode Island committee, after giving a much 

 greater amount of personal attention to the matter, came to the con- 

 clusion that the prayer of the petitioners was well founded, and they 

 reported in favor of a very stringent law, prohibiting the further use of 

 "traps" or " pounds," excepting within a limited district. (Page 104.) 

 So far from agreeing with the Massachusetts committee on this subject, 

 they gave it as one result of their inquiry that the difference in abun- 

 dance of food-fishes between the present time and that ten years ago 

 involved an increase in expense of at least $100 per annum to one thou- 

 sand persons, resident on or near the sea-coast ; or, in other words, 

 that one thousand families were taxed to the amount of $100 a year for 

 the purchase of food which previously was readily taken by one or 

 other of its members, at odd moments of time throughout the season. 

 So totally different were the conclusions arrived at by the two com- 

 mittees.* 



The report against the prayer of the petitioners, made by the com- 

 mittee of the Massachusetts State senate, settled the question for the 

 time, and no further action was taken. The report of the Ehode Island 

 committee, however, was presented to the legislature, but nothing defi- 

 nite was done. In this State it became a political question rather than 

 an economical one, and shared with the regular issues in determining 

 the result of elections. Rhode Island being strongly republican, the 

 republican ticket was usually elected without any question ; but the 



* This remarkable contradiction in the results of the two commissions showed the ne- 

 cessity of a special scientific investigation on this subject, to be prosecuted in the way 

 of direct experiment upon the fish themselves, their feeding and breeding grounds. It 

 will be observed that the conclusions depended generally upon the evidence of fisher- 

 men alone. The same was the case with the British commission, of which Professor 

 Huxley was a member, and which in the course of its researches visited eighty-six 

 places on the coast of England, and had before them large numbers of persons engaged 

 in the fisheries, some of them using nets and trawls, and others lines. These gentlemen 

 reported that there was no proof adduced to show that the supply of fish iu the Brit- 

 ish seas had decreased, and therefore they opposed any restrictions. 



