Jan. 20, 1894] 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



other fishermen have put down traps in close proximity to 

 their own; and it also shows that the average prices at which 

 the fish were sold in Fulton Market for the year 1893 were 

 less than for the average of the twelve preceding years. 



Inasmuch as Fulton Market is the great mart of the fish 

 trade, and prices there may fairly be held to control, it is im- 

 portant to note this fact, that the average prices for the past 

 year were not up to the level of former years. 



With the constantly spreading demand for fish food, it is 

 undeniable that the supply must have kept equal pace with 

 the demand, or else prices would inevitably go up. That 

 prices did not go up, but on the contrary averaged lower for 

 for 1893 than for a dozen years before, is proof positive that 

 there is no such "growing scarcity of edible fishes along our 

 coast line" as forms the only basis for the call of the present 

 congress. Certain it is, that whatever be the case elsewhere, 

 there is no such scarcity in the waters of eastern Long 

 Island. 



2. In all ages and in all parts of the world there have been 

 seasons when fish in given waters have been comparatively 

 scarce, and these eastern Long Island waters are no excep- 

 tion to this rule. But the record proves that, while the traps 

 have steadily increased, there are in some seasons an abun- 

 dance, of fish even in the upper portions of the bays. 



It follows logically and inexorably that the pounds and 

 other traps on the shores of these bays have little or nothing 

 to do with the movement of bodies of fish corniug in from the 

 open ocean. It would therefore be in fact, as well as in 

 theory, a grossly wrong as well as a mischievous thing to 

 meddle with the traps upon no better basis of ascertained 

 fact than now obtains. 



We therefore demand, on behalf of the trap fisheries of 

 Long Island, that they be let alone until after there has been 

 a fair, full, conscientious and conclusive inquiry into the 

 facts, which must determine whether they ought, or ought 

 not, to be interfered with. 



It may be added that, as shown by the printed extract 

 from La NaMtre herewith shown, although the movements 

 of cod and herring have attracted attention for centuries, it is 

 only within four years past that, by the Scottish Fishery Com- 

 mission, the first really reliable and accurate data bearing on 

 the movements of fish in the open sea have bpen obtained. 

 Thisagain proves the need of a careful and exhaustive scien- 

 tific investigation before resorting to legislation. 



Vail Bros, have also kept a record for the past ten years of 

 the catch of weakfish made by them in their traps. It shows 

 that for the first five years the number taken was 97,419, 

 while for the last five years the number was 145,538. 



Mr. Roosevelt asked Mr. Vail: 



Q. How many traps and nets did you use in '80 and '93? A. 

 We used in '80 six traps and in '93 seven traps, with an addi- 

 tion in '89 of one trap, and the others are set in the same 

 place exactly, and this trap I don't think has caught any- 

 thing. 



Henry C. Ford, of Pennsylvania, here said that the order 

 was to go bv States. 



The Chairman— We will give Mr. Ford the floor. 



Mr. Ford then addressed the meeting as follows: 



I have but a very few words to say. We have heard a good 

 deal from the fishermen, but a very little from the Fish Com- 

 mission, with the exception of Col. McDonald, and last night 

 I happened to think of the causes of the depletion of our 

 greatest rivers, and I have just jotted down a few ideas which 

 I think will not take me over the stated time. It is hard to 

 propose what to do. The fact struck me to have this confer- 

 ence appoint a committee composed of both fishermen and 

 anglers, who might probably formulate some laws that would 

 be of advantage to all. 



The Experience of Pennsylvania. 



Although Pennsylvania has no seaboard, yet the protec- 

 tion or devastation of those great estuaries the Delaware and 

 Chesapeake bays, directly affects her two largest rivers, the 

 Delaware and Susquehanna. Therefore her fishermen, both 

 commercial and individual, have an interest in protesting 

 against any method of fishing that interferes with the ingress 

 or egress of anadromous fish. 



The numerous pound nets along the Maryland shores of the 

 upper Chesapeake and in the vicinity of the Susquehanna, the 

 hundreds of fish weirs erected in the fourteen miles of its 

 course through Maryland territory, have ruined one of the 

 greatest shad producing rivers of the United States, and 

 practically nullified the efforts of the State and U. S. Com- 

 missions in stocking the 600 miles of the two branches of 

 the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania and New York. 



Here is an evil that calls loudly for the exercise of j udicious 

 inter-State legislation f As to the Delaware, an inter-State 

 act with New Jersey has been greatly instrumental in mak- 

 ing this river what it is to day in shad production— probably 

 the largest shad producing river in the United States; its 

 production having increased from a valuation of $81,000 in 

 1881, to over §500,000 ten years later. By this act pound nets 

 are forbidden, fish weirs have been thoroughly eradicated 

 from the river and all net fishing ceases with the close of 

 the shad season in early summer 



Pennsylvania has also forbidden the destructive pound 

 net in the Lake Erie territory, but to little avail, as long as 

 other bordering States permit it to the fullest extent. 



The abolition of pound net fishing has been of such advan- 

 tage in the Delaware that it would not again be permitted 

 in the waters of the State. What has been so good for the 

 fishing interests of Pennsylvania would certainly be of equal 

 benefit to the waters of New York, with its noble Hudson 

 and the numerous bays that burst through the sands of 

 Long Island; or for Connecticut, where the shad fisheries of 

 its best river have been ruined by the iniquitous pound net, 

 and especially to the Chesapeake, where it has been used to 

 such an extent that but little, is left of the old time great, 

 fisheries. 



It seems that the best and only way to remedy the abuses 

 that are so injuriously affecting the fishing interests of the 

 country, is through vigorous and concerted action. If the 

 organization of such action is merely left to the Fish Com- 

 missions and protective societies of the several States it will 

 fail. These bodies naturally only take cognizance of the 

 abuses that threaten their own commmunities or States. 



The remedy for this would be the formation of a powerful 

 organization, comprising members from all the seaboard 

 States, whose committees could act unitedly and intelligently 

 in their own State Legislatures, or where national interfer- 

 ence is demanded, could make their influence felt in the 

 halls of Congress. Our State fish protective associations 

 have beeu productive of the greatest good in our interior 

 State fishing interests. Why should not an "Atlantic Fish 

 Proctective Association," be equally Argus-eyed to discover 

 and repress illegal and destructive methods of fishing on our 

 seaboard. .H. C. Ford, President, 



Pennsylvania Commission of Fisheries. 



B. F. De Butts, of Massachusetts, said: 



I represent the Boston Fish Bureau. It consists of an as- 

 sociation formed of merchants in the salt and fresh fish 

 business. We have members in the city of New York We 

 have members in St. Louis, in Chicago, and in fact about all 

 the larger cities of the Unired States. Our bureau is main- 

 tained for the purpose of procuring and compiling statistics 

 in relation to the fisheries, not only of New England, but of 

 the United States, anything that is of interest to the fish 

 business, not only as fishermen but as merchants. We also 

 furnish for the United States quite frequently, statistics and 

 information relative to the subject in which Prof. McDonald 

 I believe will bear me out, so that an examin«tion of those 

 facts should substantiate or be of value in this discussion. 



We find that in our statistics from the year 1810 up to the 



present time, speaking of mackerel, speaking of herring, 

 that these years of fluctuation, these years of increase 

 these years of an abundance and scarcity continued, 

 just asmuch previous to the use of the purse seine, the 

 pound net or the. trap, as it does to-day. So that we 

 claim that it is not the introduction of the improved 

 implements of mankind that are employed in the fish- 

 eries that is producing any diminution in the fresh or 

 salt fish supply. We are increasing; the supply of food fish 

 for the great masses of the United States. I will further say 

 that, in this connection, following the histories of Norway, 

 Sweden, Great Britain and all the fishing countries of the 

 great world, we find these same years, these periods of 

 scarcity, these periods of plenty existed. Take the herring 

 fisheries of Norway. There was a period of thirty-two years 

 when there was not a fish caught in the shape of a herring 

 on the coast of Norway. Now here is something that 

 humanity does not understand. We claim that it was some 

 law of nature, but at the expiration of thirty-two years the 

 herring returned to the coast of Norway more abundant 

 than ever was known before. History tells us of a similar 

 instance when there was a period of sixty-two years. We 

 take the fisheries of Scotland, the same law applies there. 

 We take the fisheries of Sweden, Denmark, the same law 

 applies there, consequently we claim that it is not the im- 

 plements used by mankind at the present day that creates 

 this increase and decrease in the supply. 



There is one fact I believe that has not been brought out by 

 this conference. I am not only a catcher of mackerel, but I 

 am a merchant in that business In 1887 we made up our 

 mind as merchants that our supply of mackerel was going to 

 be short in this country. Incidentally I saw a notice that 

 mackerel were selling in the Loudon markets at 2 pence a 

 hundred. I endeavored to ascertain, through all means pos- 

 sible, if those mackerel were the same as the species we were 

 catching and selling here. It was impossible to obtain the 

 information, notwithstanding we had hundreds of our people 

 visiting that country every year. I did succeed finally in get- 

 ting partial information, and I at once proceeded to the Irish 

 coast, and from the west coast of Ireland was imported the 

 first mackerel into theUnited States. We followed those fish 

 through the season, we followed them to the English coast, 

 to Norway and Sweden, and I ask you simply to look to-day 

 and ascertain what our supply of food fish is from foreign 

 countries. We have received of the catch of Ireland 40,000 

 barrels of mackerel. Previous to 1887 not a barrel was salted 

 for import. The catch of Norway this year amounts to just 

 a few barrels less than 10,000. The bulk of that has been im- 

 ported into your own city, together with a few that have gone 

 into Boston. 



Now, gentlemen, legislate, make laws to protect your own 

 fishermen of their resources for furnishing you a cheap sup- 

 ply of food fish, and what is the result? I, as a merchant, 

 if I can import from any foreign country, will do so if I can 

 get them cheaper. You are wiping out the great American 

 industry that has been in existence since 1600, and for what ? 

 For the benefit of a foreign industry. These are facts that 1 

 wish you all to look at, and before you legislate and make 

 laws that will interfere with this business, let us understand 

 just what the fishermen want and just what they require. 

 Gentlemen, I thank you. 



I would like to say iu addition to my few remarks that I 

 will furnish you with statistics on the salt fisheries of this 

 country since 1810. I will furnish you with advice since 1831, 

 I will convince you by statistics that the price of mackerel 

 to-day solely depends on the supply and the demand. In 1884 

 I dumped enough mackerel on the docks of New York from 

 my own vessels to supply your community here for 30 days, 

 as other gentlemen present engaged in the same fishing will 

 say. They would not bring 1 cent apiece, when they usually 

 sell for 7 cents or 9 cents, and yet this great and abundant 

 supply of fish in 1884 was 10 or 20 years after your purse 

 seine had been in use and your pound nets that have been 

 destroying this vast amount of food fish. The same applies 

 to 1831, before there was a pound or purse net or anything of 

 that kind used. 



These are facts borne out by statistics that we will be glad 

 to furnish you. 



E. A. Brackett, of Massachusetts, read the following 

 paper on lobsters: 



Protection and Preservation of Our Lobster 

 Fisheries. 



BY EDWARD A. BKACKETT. 



The protection and preservation of the lobster fisheries has 

 more or less occupied the attention of the Massachusetts 

 Commission. That this important industry is gradually 

 growing less every year is apparent to every one who is 

 familiar with its history. 



Lobsters do not belong to the great ocean fisheries; they 

 are bay or estuary fish, with little or no migratory habits 

 simply moving in-shore during warm weather and retreating 

 to deeper water in winter. From their limited range they 

 can be easily depleted by over fishing, but mainly throueh 

 the destruction of the egg bearing and immature lobsters, all 

 of which can be controlled by wise legislation of a uniform 

 character in the States interested. 



I am glad, Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, that this call 

 for a conference of the several States, in the hope that it may 

 lead to uniform laws wherever climatic conditions may per- 

 mit, has come from the State of New York. 



In the efforts of the Eastern States to protect this industry 

 we have beeu handicapped by the fact that the State of New 

 York, as well as States further south, permit the sale of 

 egg-bearing and short lobsters, prohibited by law in the New 

 England States. The practical effect of this has been to 

 tempt our fishermen to violate the laws made for their own 

 protection. 



I have no comments to make here on the universal adoption 

 by the fishermen of that Christian precept: "take no Thought 

 for the morrow." Whatever else may be charged against 

 them, it cannot be said that they do not live up to this rule. 



Your fishing smacks have swarmed in our waters, carrying 

 on an illegal traffic, to that extent that Maine and Massa- 

 chusetts have been obliged to patrol the coast w,ith police 

 boats, while on land, in blissful ignorauce of interstate laws 

 we have interviewed thousands of these lobsters traveling 

 southward by rail and given them a much needed rest in 

 Boston Harbor. The State of New York, and especially the 

 City, is the great dumping ground for lobsters illegally 

 caught in other States. All of this arises from lack of uni- 

 form laws in the various States interested. 



Admitting (what I think will not be denied by any one 

 familiar with its history) that the lobster fishery is a wan- 

 ing industry, we come to the question: What can be done to 

 arrest its downward tendency? For reasons which will be 

 stated further on, I think we will have to give up the idea of 

 accomplishing this by artificial hatching. 



In 1889 we conducted a series of careful and exhaustive 

 experiments in artiticial hatching, and the following state- 

 ments were made in the Massachusetts Report for 1891. 

 Many of the facts then demonstrated were, at that time, new, 

 and we are not aware that any of them have been called in 

 question: 



"In 18S9, at a hearing before a legislative committee on 

 nsh and game, for the purpose of discussing the question of 

 a close season on lobsters, the fishermen claimed that they 

 spawned every month in the year. Our investigations have 

 shown this to be correct, but not in the sense which the 

 rishermen claimed for it. Such spawning is an exception to 

 the general rule, for the bulk of the spawn is deposited in 

 June, July aud August. 



"While engaged in hatching lobsters in April, 1889, some 

 tacts were discovered leading to the conclusion that lobster 



eggs did not hatch in the winter. To verify this, egg-bearin^ 

 lobsters were secured in the fall and kept in cars until spring 3 

 The temperature of the water wastakeu everyday, and a few 

 eggs were sent to Prof. Garman, at Cambridge, every two 

 weeks, for microscopic examination. Itwas found that little 

 or no progress was made in the development of the embryo 

 until the water reached the tempera ture of 50° F. , and no eggs 

 were hatched until the water rose to 55°. These experi- 

 ments have demonstrated the fact that, no matter at what 

 time the eggs are deposited on the swimmerets, they require 

 a certain degree of warmth to mature them. It is doubtful 

 whether, if hatched below this temperature, they would find 

 the animalculas necessary for their food. 



Our experiments in hatching lobsters showed that, with 

 proper arrangements, it was easy to hatch them by millions 

 but, such an arrangement would require a hatching house', 

 with machinery for lifting the water so that there would be 

 a constant flow over the eggs and that the young lobsters 

 could be kept in confinement only a few days, after which 

 they either destroyed each other or died from starvation 

 No efforts yet made to feed them have succeeded, and how- 

 ever successful one may be in hatching them, they should 

 be let loose at once to take their chances in the open sea. 

 Egg-beariug lobsters put in boxes, properly prepared and 

 floated in sheltered places, demonstrated the fact that tSere 

 were no unimpreguated eggs. All hatched at about the 

 same time. Whether they are impregnated before or after 

 the eggs are laid has not yet been positively determined. 



These experiments were carefully and scientifically made 

 with a large number of egg-bearing lobsters and several mil- 

 lions of eggs. It should be remembered that the female 

 carries her eggs in a way that protects them from their 

 enemies and that after they are hatched the shells remain 

 attached to the swimmerets for several days, and that it is 

 easy to detect the lobsters whose eggs have been recently 

 removed by violence. An examination of hundreds of lob- 

 sters with egg shells attached taken from the traps show 

 that whether in the open sea or in confinement the eggs all 

 hatch. 



If these investigations are to be relied on (and they must 

 stand until further investigation proves that they are in 

 error) it does not seem possible that, any advantages to be 

 derived from artificial hatching, except in localities where 

 the egg-bearing lobster is not protected by law. The advan- 

 tage of artificial hatching of fish applies only where under 

 certain conditions or circumstances, impregnation is defec- 

 tive or where the eggs are exposed to danger during incuba- 

 tion, and where the fry can be easily transported to stock 

 other waters. 



In our experiments we repeatedly removed the eggs from 

 the swimmerets and hatched them in boxes on wire screens. 

 We found that even with the most careful handling, this 

 could not be done without a loss of from ten to twenty per 

 cent., and this is verified by the experiments at Wood's Holl 

 during the past seasou, under the direction of the U. S. Com- 

 missioners, where from 10,037,300 eggs 8,818,000 were hatched, 

 showing a loss of 1,219,300. 



SatisUed that the conclusions drawn from our investiga- 

 tions were correct, we recommended a law protecting the 

 egg-bearing lobsters, which was passed by the Legislature 

 of Massachusetts, and has been fairly enforced, but it is too 

 soon to realize any benefit from it, for it is generally under- 

 stood that it requires from five to seven years for the newly 

 hatched lobsters to reach the length of lOj^in., which is the 

 legal length in our State. 



There is no question that this, together with the ten and 

 one-half-inch law, has been beneficial, but the latter law does 

 not go quite far enough, as lobsters do not generally spawn 

 until they reach a length of eleven, or eleven and one half 

 inches, and the consequence is that there has been an alarm- 

 ing decrease in egg-bearing lobsters during the last four 

 years, as will be seen by the sworn returns of the Massachu- 

 setts fishermen: 



189° 70,909 egg-bearing lobsters. 



1891 49,773 " 



1892 37,230 •« 



1893 32,741 " 



These lobsters are returned at once to the water, alive 



The returns from the Wood's Holl Station give an average 

 of over 14,000 eggs per lobster. On that ratio our returns for 

 1890 should give 992,727,000 eggs, and the decrease since 1890 

 would be 534,352,000. 



Whatever good may have accrued from the passage of these 

 laws, it must be admitted that the industry is still on the 

 decline. Should the protection of the egg-bearing lobsters 

 fail to restore these fisheries, then it may be necessary to fix 

 the marketable length at eleven and one-half inches. Again 

 if this should not be sufficient, then for a time prohibit the 

 catching of all female lobsters. 



There can be no question that one of the most serious ob- 

 stacles to the preservation of our fisheries is the destruction 

 of the young fish, for if they were allowed to mature suffi- 

 ciently to deposit their spawn, if only for one year, it would 

 go a long way toward keeping up the supply. The import- 

 ance of this cannot be overestimated, for it lies at the foun- 

 dation of the preservation of all our fisheries and marks the 

 line between failure and success, and unless we look to it 

 carefully one of our most important food supplies will con- 

 tinue to be a waning industry. 



In the bays, the lakes and the rivers the decline of the fish- 

 eries m ust be apparent to every careful observer. The theory 

 that they can be maintained by artificial breeding against the 

 wholesale destruction of both old and young fish, is wrong- 

 for there will become a time (and in some instances it has al- 

 ready come) when the supply of mature fish, upon which we 

 must depend for eggs, must fail. 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, we need not go far to look 

 for the cause of the depletion of our fisheries. In addition to 

 the enormous destruction everywhere necessary to sustain 

 the lower forms of life that prey upon each other, man steps 

 m with his engines of destruction, regardless of the laws of 

 reproduction, and destroys the balance of nature. The ten- 

 dency once downward, requires energetic and heroic efforts 

 to arrest its further depletion. Already the great shad fish- 

 eries of the Connecticut, the Merrimac and other New Eng- 

 land rivers are gone. 



In the economy of living, in the interest of the people who 

 have a right to demand a supply of wholesome food at 

 reasonable price, it is our duty to do all we can to protect 

 this important industry. 



It may be said with much force that every business should 

 be allowed to take care of itself, and that there should be no 

 interference. That may be true so far as the manufacturers 

 and consumers are concerned, but in the fisheries, as in the 

 products of the soil, it requires careful consideration and in- 

 telligent action looking not only to our immediate wants, 

 but also to those who will come after us. Let us hope that 

 meetings of this kind may be frequent where the interests of 

 the fishermen as well as of the people may be freelv dis- 

 cussed. J 

 [to be CONTINUED.] 



A NEW-SUBSCRIBER OFFER. 



A bona fide new subscriber sending us $5 will receive for that sum 

 the Fokkst and Stream one year (price $4) and a set of Zimmerman's 

 famous "Ducking Scenes" (advertised on another page, price $6)— a 

 89 value for $5. 



This offer is to new subscribers only. It does not apply to renewals. 



For $3 a bona fide new subscriber for six months will receive the 

 Forest and Stream during tnat time and a copy of Dr. Van Fleet's 

 handsome work, "Bird Portraits for the Young" (the price of which 



