356 
BULLETIN OF THE BUKEAU OF FISHERIES 
In explanation of the scarcity on Long Island, N. Y., Cheney (1901) wrote: 
In 1900 it was thought that the heavy storms which prevailed at the spawning season pre- 
vented the smelts from running into the streams where they were in the habit of spawning, but 
this would not be an excuse this year. Talking with Mr. DeNyse, he said, quite positively, that 
he believed the codfish artificially hatched by the United States Fish Commission and which now 
swarmed in Long Island waters, had preyed upon the smelts to such an extent that they were 
practically destroyed where they were formerly so abundant. He did not say what evidence, if 
any, he had of this, except the presence in vast numbers of the young codfish, where formerly smelts 
were plentiful, but it may be a reasonable explanation of the disappearance of the smelt. 
According to Atkins, the scarcity of smelts in the spawning season at Surry in 
1878 was attributed by N. Hinckley, Esq., to too much dipping when the tide was 
out and the fish collected in bodies in tide pools; while in the same year, in the case 
of Lawrence Brook, Atkins stated that Billy Harriman thought that eels kept the 
smelts out of the brooks, as, he said, when eels get into the brooks first, as they did 
this year, it often happens that there is a scarcity of smelt. 
Mather (1885) attributed the growing scarcity of smelts of Long Island to over- 
fishing during the breeding season. He said: 
Their habit of ascending streams at night and returning to salt water before day renders them 
liable to capture both ways * * *. 
In his notes of 1910 the present writer finds the following remark: 
So many boys were after smelts on Porter’s Landing brook [Freeport, Me.] that the fish got 
but little chance to spawn. However, some smelts probably would have been able to ascend if it 
had not been for the seining in the creek and river just below the brook. Spring seining should 
be prohibited from March 1. 
As elsewhere stated, it has been observed that smelts congregate at the mouths 
of streams even before the ice is out, for some time before ascending to spawn. It 
was this fact and the seining of those fish at the time that gave rise to the foregoing 
remark. That there has been more or less general decline is evident. This and the 
total depletion of the smelt fishery in some localities are attributable to one or more, 
and in some instances perhaps to all, of several causes, which may be classified, at 
least in part, as follows: (1) Interference with reproduction; (2) excessive and 
wasteful fishing 
The first class comprises obstruction and pollution of streams formerly frequented 
by smelts for breeding, and uncontrolled fishing during the runs in the streams 
at spawning times. The second principally involves destruction of immature fish 
in the course of legal net fishing during the open season. 
Dams have formed the principal obstructions in many streams, and they are 
too general for specific citation. Instances of pollution of streams affecting smelts 
are not as numerous, but the Passaic River in New Jersey is a conspicuous example. 
The destruction of smelts on and near the breeding places during the breeding 
season, formerly a common practice, has been stopped in some localities but still 
obtains in others. In almost all of the present smelt fisheries, excepting the hook- 
and-line fishery, destruction of immature fish, especially those about 1 year old and 
upward, prevails. Every year during the open season, wherever seines are used in 
the capture of smelts, a vast number of immature smelts and those that would 
