FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 2 1 



length of bar, in another as " suitable meshes," and in others the size of the mesh is 

 not mentioned. We would recommend that the size of the mesh be explicitly stated 

 where nets are permitted to take commercial fishes, and, so far as possible, the netting 

 laws be made uniform in their application. 



The present law provides an open season for catching black bass, beginning on 

 May 30th, and extending to January 1st. The continuance of this open season is a 

 menace to the future of this species of the fish in the waters of the State. 



Black bass spawn all through the month of June, and to open the season during 

 the breeding time is most ill-advised, and no amount of artificial stocking within 

 the means of the Commission will make up for the waste of killing spawning 

 bass. It is difficult for the State to obtain any large number of black bass at 

 this time, even by purchase, and every section that is visited to obtain bass 

 for transplanting protests most vigorously. The black bass is the one fish of 

 all the hook-and-line fishes that guards its spawning bed during the develop- 

 ment of the ova, and watches over the brood of young fish after they are 

 hatched, so they really require more consideration as to length of close season 

 than any other fish in the State. When cold weather approaches black bass 

 gather on deep shoals and lie partly dormant, as a rule, until warm weather returns. 

 Within recent years this habit of the black bass has led to their destruction in some 

 waters, as their winter habitat has been sought out by unthinking men, and the bass 

 have been pulled from their winter quarters in a scandalous manner. We would 

 suggest that the open season for black bass fishing begin on the 1st day of July, and 

 close on the 15th of October. 



The " land-locked salmon " of the Game Law is no other than the sea salmon with 

 a fresh water habitat, or ouananiche as it is called in the Dominion of Canada. And 

 yet the law presents the inconsistency of limiting the legal length at which the 

 anadromous fish may be killed to eighteen inches, while the fish with a local 

 home may be legally slaughtered when, in its babyhood, it reaches the length 

 of six inches. Land-locked salmon run from the lakes into tributary streams to spawn, 

 and the young remain in the streams for two years before going down to the waters 

 of the lakes, and during the two years in the streams grow to exceed six inches in 

 length, and it is almost a criminal waste of raw material to permit a six-inch baby 

 salmon, weighing two ounces, to be killed, when if allowed a chance for its life it will 

 grow into a magnificent fish of twenty five to thirty pounds in weight. We would 

 suggest that the legal limit of length at which salmon and land-locked salmon may be 

 killed should be made identical, eighteen inches. 



Section 143 of the Game Law provides that " eel pots of a form and character such 

 as may be prescribed by the rules of the Commissioners of Fisheries may be used in 



