364 
BULLETIN OF THE BUBEAU OF FISHERIES 
shipments. These States have found it necessary to make stringent laws for the preservation of 
the species in their waters, and we should not ignore the lesson they teach us. 
After quoting certain State laws that restricted smelt fishing to “ naturally or 
artificially baited hook,” and from a local newspaper that also decried the conditions 
described by Venning, he went on to say: 
In view of these facts, the time has come when this monstrous waste ought to be looked at 
with the eye of common sense. What are the facts? This is but the third season of its existence 
as a systematic and organized fishery. The returns in the table show that in these three seasons 
it has grown from nothing to its present vast proportions. These returns, which fall far short of 
the whole catch, show that 1,213 tons of smelts have been shipped. Add to this large quantity 
half as much more for small smelts, young bass and tom-cods wasted, and take into account that 
these returns are only made up to 31st December, that two months more of this destructive work 
will continue, and we will have the astounding quantity of at least 2,000 tons of smelts and young 
bass, tom-cods and flat-fish taken from our waters in a single winter. Is it creditable that any 
fishery can stand this drain? 
When one reads this article of Venning’s upon the smelt fishery of New Bruns- 
wick, and his emphatic warning concerning the imminent exhaustion of the fishery, 
if he makes a comparison of the statistics representing the period from 1871 to 1878 
(p. 261) with those of the period from 1913 to 1924 (p. 262), he will wonder if Venning’s 
alarm, as well as that frequently expressed in this country, was not all “bunk.” 
For it is seen that after a lapse of 35 years, from 1878 to 1913, or the beginning of 
the period shown by the table on page 262, which represents the export smelt trade of 
Canada, no evidence of depletion was shown by the quantities of smelts caught. 
Instead of the 1,213 tons of 1878, mentioned by Venning, in 1913 there were shipped 
from New Brunswick alone over 3,000 tons of smelts. 
In the period from 1913 to 1923 the largest quantity was taken in 1918, amount- 
ing to about 3,496 tons. It is true that in 1923 there was a falling off in the quan- 
tity to the smallest amount in the 11 -year period, but even so over 2,160 tons were 
shipped. There is no doubt in the present writer’s mind but that Venning’s expressed 
alarm was well founded; but if there was that danger of depletion in 1878 the ques- 
tion arises as to how the fishery was not merely maintained but greatly increased in 
magnitude of annual catches in the latter period. 
There is no evidence of much, if any, modification in fishing apparatus, and there 
was no restriction of the methods to hook and line fishing. An increase in the num- 
ber of fishermen and the intensity of fishing might account for larger catches but 
not for the almost uniform quantities for the 11 years, to say nothing of the quantities 
taken in the 35 years intervening between the two periods represented by the tables. 
While other factors may have been concerned in the preservation of the Canadian 
smelt fishery, there are two that appear to be paramount. One is the protection of 
the fish during its breeding season, and the other is the short fishing season, which 
extends only from December 1 to February 15 following, a period of two and one-half 
months, against the season of six months in Maine, with absolutely no protection 
during the period when, by propagation, the smelt is striving to do its part toward 
the maintenance of the fishery. In 1878 Venning advised drawing a lesson from the 
New England States; it now is strongly advised that New England, and Maine in 
particular, learn a lesson from New Brunswick. 
