FISHES OF THE NORTHERN COAST OF NEW JERSEY. 
367 
would result in a diminution in the average catch per net. In 1880, when there were 
11 pound nets set on this shore, the average stock was somewhat greater than in 
recent years, although the average quantity of fish taken was a little less. Comparing 
1889 with 1892, it appears that, although the number of nets in the latter year was 
about three times the number in the former, the average catch and stock were greater. 
Tears. 
No. of 
nets. 
Average 
catch per 
pound net. 
Average 
stock per 
net. 
11 
Pounds. 
248, 980 
247, 270 
$7,980 
6, 453 
7, 167 
1889 
1890 
7 
281, 160 
1891 
12 
278, 670 
7, 076 
298, 525 
7, 389 
I 1892 
The influence of pound nets on the abundance and movements of fishes is a 
question which can not be answered off hand and which involves a comprehensive 
knowledge and careful study of the natural conditions determining the migrations 
and periods of abundance and scarcity of our fishes. Probably the time is not far 
distant when it will become an obvious necessity in some States to place more strin- 
gent regulations on the use of pound and other nets in certain situations, as, for 
instance, in the mouths of rivers, where the decrease in the catch of shad, sturgeon, 
salmon, etc., may often be clearly traced to the taking of fish on their way to the 
spawning-grounds in such numbers that the reproductive process is practically inhib- 
ited; but it is a well-recognized fact that pound and other nets which are set in the 
open waters of the ocean and take chiefly free-swimming marine fishes are the least 
likely to do serious damage and afford the least ground for apprehension. 
Perhaps the most valid and forceful objection that has been made against the 
pound nets on this coast is that there is a large destruction of immature and small 
fish that are unmarketable. This criticism is applicable to most of the pound fish- 
ing in this country. It is not generally denied by the pound- fishermen that many 
fish too large to go through the meshes of the nets and too small to be marketed are 
caught and, by the nature of the fishery, necessarily sacrificed. The same objection 
is justly advanced against much of the seine fishing on our coast. Ho entirely satis- 
factory remedy has as yet been suggested for this condition. The enlargement of 
the mesh in the bowl of the pound nets will not completely overcome present objec- 
tions and will introduce elements of expense and trouble which the fishermen 
wish to avoid. The fishermen say that, unless the size of the mesh is made so 
large that many of the marketable fish will escape, the fish sought to be preserved 
will be gilled, and thus as effectually destroyed as with a small mesh, while the 
time and labor required to clear the net of the gilled fish would make the prosecution 
of the business almost impracticable. The remedy which seems to afford the most 
relief is to require the pound operators to lift the nets more frequently than is usually 
done, to liberate all small fish, and bring to the shore only such fish as are market- 
able. The principal species of which large numbers of small individuals are destroyed 
on the Hew Jersey coast is the butter-fish. The fish is naturally a small one, rarely 
exceeding half a pound in weight and averaging only one-third of a pound. The 
great relative depth of the body of the fish makes it impossible for even very young 
