Report of Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries - 1871

              III.--TESTIMONY IN REGARD TO THE PRESENT CON-DITION
OF THE FISHERIES, TAKEN IN 1871.
]N~WPOILT~ RHODE ISLAND~
A~tgust 1, 1871.
The following reports were all made by a phonographic reporter, Mr.
H. E. Rockwell, of Washington~ and are intended to present the words
of the witnesses, without alteration :
HENRY O. TIF:FT :
There are very few fish indeed now, to what there used to be. They
are growing scarcer every year; they arc much scarcer this year than
last, 1 think. I hear people who fish say that they e,'rnnot do any-thing
to what they could once. One of' them told me he had been out
and fished a week, and did not catch a black-fish. The traps catch them
up in tile spring of the year. The tautog are a species that go up the
Providence River to spawn ; it is salt water all the way up. We used
to catch seup and tautog, as many as we wanted, away up Providence
River ~ but they don't catch scup now. I don't think they eould go any-where
in l~'arragansett Bay and catch ~up with a hook and line. I
don~t think they catch them much in the pounds.
Mr. MAOr. If you were to take a vote of the people, I think it would
be ten to one against the use of pounds. All the people say to me that
the pounds are the cause of the diminution of the fish.
Mr. TI:~TT. Most of the traps are in the river ; none outside. They
are in the East and West Bays, and all the way up on both shores
nearly half-way up to Providence. There is a trap-seine at Poin} Judith
now; there is ~ pound everywhere that they can drive stakes. There
arc three times as many pounds this year as last ; it is a money-making
business, and all want to go into it. They say the legislature has no
power to stop them, and will keel) on fishing if they are prosecuted.
The fish strike at Point Judith be~)re they do in West Bay. It seems
as if they were coming fi-om the south. Traps were put down first at
Saughkonet. In the spring of the year yon will see little spring-bass
in the market, about six inches long, taken in these nets. The majority
of them are small when the.~lfirst come.
~r. ~fAcr. Sixteen or eig:h'teen years a~o there were five vessels went
out from here, fishing for mackerel, but they sunk money in it and
dropped the business.
~'[r. TIF]~'T. There are some pounds on the south end of Providence
Island, on both sides of the Canonicu G and through the et~st and west
passages, up as far as Tiverton. Scup are out of the question. All kinds
of fish are killed out, and the breeding broken up. I think, what the
pound men call small scup, that they say they catch so plenty this year~
are skip-jacks, a They look almost precisely alike when small. The skip-jack
is a. small species; never grows large ~ the only difference from the
scup is, that the skip-j~ck has finer scales than the scup. The skip-jack
grow about tour or five inches long. They are caught about the
wharves here; but no scup has a chance to spawn in our waters.
This is a mistake ; the fish in question are small scup.--S. F. B.
REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.
Mr. MACY. The squeteague are four times as plenty now as I have
ever seen them before, and keep increasing. In 1830 we caught the first
blue-fish in ~antueket ; but in 1851 my uncle c:mght a barrel which he
salted. They became plenty afterward, and continued so up to the year
of the plague that killed off all the Indians but two children. They all
disapl)eared that year.
Mr. J. J. CURRY~ dealer in fish :
The S1)anish mackerel are caught in this vicinity. They are more
scarce this year than usual. The blue-fish run about as last year, but
larger. I have kept a fish-market here six years. I do not think the
blue-fish scarcer than they were six years ago. There was a. time, six
years ago~ when in August: for three days: we could not get any. I do
not know that there are any more traps used now than there were six
years ago. We get all our fish tbr market here in this neighborhood,
except halibut, round mackerel, and sahnon ; these come from Boston.
Six years ago the price of Spanish nmekercl was forty cents a pound;
now they are worth a dollar a pound. Sahnon are selling for fifty cents
a pound. I buy my fish from the pound-men, paying about fifty-five
cents a pound lor Spanish mackerel. Last year we had four times as
many Spanish mackerel as formerly. They were first caught here tour
years ago. We get eight cents a pound for blue-fish; never sell them
/'or less than that. Fh~t-fish we can hardly give away in this market.
We get eight cents a pound ibr weak-fish, (squcteague.) We do not sell
many round mackerel ; we cammt get more than ten or twelve cents a
i)ound tbr them fresh, and: ~ehen salted, they sell tbr eighteen cents
Soup bring five cents apiece on an average ; not more than si~ or eight
cents a pound. We get no seup scarcely.
SAMUEL AL:BI~O: dealer in fish :
We get forty cents a pound tbr sheep%head; they ,~re taken in the
West Bay. We get five cents a pound for flat-fish, (flounders;) take
anything we can get for them; they are not much used here. We get
halfa dollar a pound lbr salmon. There is one kind of llat-fisl b that we
call pueker-nlouth: tha~ is better than the other kind. ])~or lobsters we
get five cents ~ pound. I think blue-fish are more plenty than last year.
Tautogarescaree. George Crabb* makes five dollars a day catching tantog
with a hook and line the year round. IIe will average a hundred l)ounds a
(l~y. In the spring' our market would not be as well supplied with fish if it
were not ibr the pounds: because they eau catch them in pounds before
they will bite the hook. Down at Gooseberry Island they took in one
pound as many as 10,000 barrels of small'scup: so small that they did
not want them ; the net was so full that they could not haul it, and had
to catch hold of the bottom of it and tip them out. They were SlnLwned
south. They never saw such a lot of young seup here before. It was
from the 14th to the 18th of May that they caught so many young scup.
The big ones came along about ~i'om the 1st to the 10th of May.
FRANCIS BRI57L~Y: esq., chairman of the Commission on fisheries of
Rhode island :
We had many meetings of the Commission ill different'parts of the
State to make inquiries: and found the people generally ready to answer
them~ though some hesitated. As a general thing, the pound or trap
men here would not attend the meetings, although invited through the
notices in the newspapers. Mr. Stevens did not appe~tr betbrc the Corn-
See George Crabb's tcstimony~ p. 30~ to the contrary.
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 9
mission, nor did he respond to the interrogatorie.s sent him. There tins
been a new development of" this question since our ]ast report was made.
It is likely that the subjec~ will come up next winter; it. is largely
political question here. There was a bill prepared last spring in the
senate, about which there is a good deal of feeling, as it varies ti'om the
bill which I prepared, in applying to the whole St~te of Rhode Ish~nd.
Originally I took the ground that we would try the experiment of run-ning
the line in a particular manner. That was opposed because it was
unequal, ~:id it was said, " This is ~ partial line." Now they say to the
pound.men, ~ You ha.re had time to get out of this business and pull
up your traps; and having been forewarned, we will now run the line -<.
the whole length of the waters of the State." It is possible there may
be some resistance on account of want of jurisdiction, as gentlemen ot
the profession are generally willing to embark in such matters. It:
Connecticut they have passed a law prohibiting ~he catching of shad in
pounds after this year.
Mr. LY31A~. In Connecticut they set their pounds to the west of
Connecticut River~ they do not catch enough east of it to make the
business pay.
Mr. 3lACY. I know that a few years ago you could go out back of the
fort and catch as many scup as you wanted; but I would like to see
any one catch a scup there now. They said the people in Connecticut
and Massachusetts are catching in nets, and why should we be cut off
he:'e ? We catch shad very rarely here. Excepting very early in the
season we get them l~om the East. About fifty-five or rifty-six years
ago they caught shad plenty around Nantucket.
Mr. LY3:A~. That was a sporadic run, about which there was some-thing
very curious.
Mr. J3R~?qLEY. In the Providence Press~ within two or three days,
there has been -~ very strong article, in which the writer speaks of the
great number of young scup which have been caught~ even within the
waters near the eity~ except where the water was charged with impuri-ties,
these young fish having got the advantage of the net fishermen by
coming in two weeks earlier this year than usual.
Professor BAIRD. Does he mean to imply that these same young scup
come in year by year '.~
Mr. ]3nI~LEV. No~ that they escaped the nets this year, in conse-quence
of coming in two weeks earlier than usual. Young scup have
been killed in Providence I',ay by the impurity of the water.
General C. C. VAN ZA~DT. I was chairman of a committee of the
legislature on the subject of the shell-fish, and I tbund that the impuri-ties
had a great influence. We found oysters with a perceptible odor
of coal-tar~ that were taken five or six miles down the bay. This was
sonl(~ years since.
5lr. SAI~IUEL POIVEL. The people who are interested in this question
do not understand it at all as a whole. I think many facts are needed
before we can act correctly in regard to it. To attempt to stop the
trapping would not be useful in the end, as the traps gather great quan-tities
of fish in ~r short time--more than the lines could do in a long
time. The matter here is now tbught off till next Janu~try. I am
wedded to no theory ; but there is a curious fact that the fish come this
year~ bringing their little ones with them.
lO REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISII AND YISHERIES.
NE~VPORT~ t~IIODE ISLAND~ August 2, ].871.
J. ~i. K. SOUTItW~CK:
I am not now a practical fishermau~ although I have fished many
years with traps and nets of different kinds. The question is one which
excites considerable feeling. We have two styles of nets ; what is called
the trap~ and the heart-seine or pound.
[These were illustrated by drawings in this manner :]
There is no bottom to the trap-net, and it must be watched all the
time. Fish, when not excited~ will remain ill it some time, especially
scup ; but menhaden are apt to get out unless they are closely watched.
Tile first trap is set at Franklin ttoliow~ to catch the fish as they run
south~ on the eastern shore of the West Passage. It has a leader of
something like a hundred iathoms. Traps have been tried on the west
shore, but no fish are caught there in the spring.
There is a heart-seine in Mackerel Cove, which has a leader of about
seventy.fve ihthoms. There are two set near Fort Adams. I set one
five years at Pine-Tree Beach~ having a leade~" of forty-five ththoms.
The leader is generally set perpendicular to the shore. There is a heart-seine
at Coddington~s Cove. The rest are usually traps. I catch fish
usually by the 10th of May. This year the fish came carlier~ and prob-ably
could have been caught by the 1st of May. The fish were ten days
later at Coddington~s Cove than at Pine-Tree Cove. VChen the fish first
come in the spring~ we catch a few at first, and then a hundred or two,
and then pretty soon several hundred barrels. The first run is generally
larger than the later. The first run of scup that comes iu~ is generally of
large scup~ all large, weighing from two to three pounds. The,~ per-haps
a week afterward~ the smaller scup, two-thirds the size of the
others come in ; and two weeks l'~ter they come that weigh from half to
three-quarters of a pound. The last run are smaller~ and many not
worth saving~ and many pass through the meshes of the net.
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 11
There is a phenomenon that has happened this year not commonly
observed by fistmrmen before. The Saughkonet and all the other fish-ermen--
I come in contact with all--report to me that they saw the
small scup in vast quantities about the time they were taking up their
nets ; they described them as being from half au inch long up to three
inches. That was about the 1st of June. Still later they were reported
to be further up the bays ; and in July Mr. Arnold~ of West Greeuwieh~
told me that the river up there seemed to be full of them.
From the middle to the last of May the heart-seines are put down gt
different points along higher up the bays ; some of them may have been
put in about the 1st of May, but they do not begin fishing much until
a little later. I have a heart-seine now "~t Dutch Island tiarbor~ in the
West Bay.
Flat-fish are caught about here in the winter.
Captain Calhoun stated to me that he saw the first scup caught here~
which was placed on exhibition at the United States Hotel. There is a
tradition that they first occurred here about 1793, and the sheep's-head
disappeared here about that time. There have been more sheep's-head
caught here this season than I have ever known. I have seen a dozen
in the market at once.
Scup have been much more abundant this year than at anytinle
during the last five or six years; still~ not so plenty as at some former
periods.
The bluefish have not shown themselves very plenty yet this year;
they have been rather scarce. There have not beett so many as last
year, up to the present time.
I thiuk the squeteague have been as plenty as ever before ; they have
been very plenty indeed.
About the time that the blue-fish come, the soup disappear.
There is no doubt but that the great majority of the fish are destroyed
while iu their spawn or small fry.
In May the spawn of the scup is found in different degrees of deveL
opment ; while some are quite ready to spawn~ others have it developed
but little. Some have no spawn in them. I saw six cleanedin the
month of 5'lay, of which only one had spawn ; there might have been
the same number taken, and every one had spawn in it.
We catch in our traps and pounds the seup in largest quantity ; next • w-------
come the sea.bass; then~ squeteague; then, blue-fish; and then the
flat-fish~ called the brail, the pucker-mouth~ and the fiounder~ then~
tautog.
The great bulk of the fish caught in the pounds goes to New York.
I have known seup sold as low as fifty cents a barrel, five or six years
ago. They sometimes sell fish for just what they cart get, b6eause they
cannot be kept long enough to get them to market. Sea-bass bring
about the sanle price as seup generally--about five cents a pound. Sque-league
bring tour eeuts; blue-fish, five cents ; flat-fish, from two to three
cents--many have been soldtbr two cents each. Very few fish are salted
here, except the herring.
Menhaden are second to seup in nmnber of pounds caught; they are
used for oil and b,'~it. One g~ng caught 1,500 barrels of menhaden last
week. There are three or ibur oil-works on this island. This season is
reported to be the best for many years for menhaden. For bait they are
sold for a dollar a barrel, and sometimes a dollar and a hall When
sold for manure, they bring about thirty cents a barrel. The purse-nets
Supply the oil-works generally with menhaden.
12 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FIStI AND FISHERIES.
JOHN ]). SWAN :
I h`%ve been fishing about forty-eight years, with hook and line ; have
never used traps or seines of any kind--nothing more than agill-net for
herring ibr bait. I have fished about Brenton~s Reef~ mostly fi)r black-fisi~
(tautog.) I think tautog is about as plenty this year as last ; but
not so plenty as five years ago. Eighteen or twenty years ago~ in two
hours I could get as many as I wanted. Then we got four or five cents
`% pound at retail; now we get eight cents. If we get fifty pounds a day
now, and work hard, we do a pretty good business. I sell to families ;
dealers give only about five cents a pound.
I have not seen `% seup this season in the water. We used to catch
them when fishing for tautog. I have not seen the run of young scup
that there is so much said about~ I have not seen young scup this year
in gre`%ter quantity than usual.
We did not formerly catch seup with the hook until ten days after
they were seen. They used to run so thick that they would crowd one
another up out of water. There was one place where they run over ,%
point where the wa~er was nine feet (leep~ and they were so thick as to
be crowded out of water. I went there this spring in the month of May,
a.nd did not see a scnp there.
Mr. SOUTI~WICK. It was reported that scup have been seen there.
Mr. Sw2~. Soup have been dwindling off ever since the traps ap-peared,
and I attribute the diminution to the traps.
Mr. SouI'~w~(~. I think i~ is due to some increase of enemies. I
think all fisb~ if ]eft `%lone, would multiply ~t certain periods `%nd become
very numerous, until their particular enemies increased and destroyed
their spawn. We know that all spawn has enemies. I do not think
there has heen so much decrease ,%8 is ,%sserted; I think it has been
principally in the bays and not in the waters gener,%lly. They are
scarce in the bay from over-fishing by the great number of fishermen
around the shores. In fishing tbr bass, they will pl`%y with the bass they
hook until he drives all the other fish away. I think that has an effect
on the bass. The senp~ I think, are affected by the impurities of the
water in coming up the bay. The appearance of the blue-fish and the
impurities of the waters from the manufactories keep out the scup.
Mr. SwaN. I have not caught `% blue-fish this year except when fish-ing
for bass ; they `%re not plenty enough to be worth fishing for.
Mr. SOUTHWICK. My observation shows that the bhm-fish have been
less than last year. They struckin very scattering.
Question. When were scup first seen this season ?
Mr. Sou~ItwICK. Somewher~ `%bout the third of 5~Iay, at Pine-Tree
Cove. Frequently we do not see them, though they `%re in the water.
They swim slowly and almost always with the tide. I think they drift
backward and forw`%rd with the tide ; unless frightened, they never go
against the tide.
Mr. OBED KI~'G. There is not three days difference between Watch
Hill and Gay Head. This season they caught seup at Gay Head first.
Mr. SOUTHWICK. I used to think it was safe. not to put in my net at
:Pine.Tree Cove till I heard of the fish being caught down near the light-boat,
off the mouth of the harbor. That w,%s so well established as being
safe to act upon, that I should not hesitate now to act upon it. For
three years: I think, the 10th, llth, and 12th of May were first days on
which scup were caught. This year they seined them about the 3d of
May. Sea-bass were more plenty at Saughkonet this year than last.
Mr. SWAN. I have not found them so plenty.
5Jr. SOU~HWICK. I fished at Pine-Tree Cove five years, and for the
PRESENT COR~DITION OF THE FISHERIES. 13
first four years I did not exceed four or five hundred pounds a month.
This year I got at some single hauls more than during the whole former
season. Last year I got as mauy as twelve or fifteen hundred-weight.
I do not know the cause of the diminution of the scup, but I think they
may have diminished ti'om the same cause that many other fish have
that were never caught in our traps, such as the bull's-eye ; the old fisher-men
say they used to catch thenl in large quantities.
Mr. SWA~. They used to be here every season. They disappeared
twenty-five years ago. There is not one to ten striped bass that there
used to be. They catch the small ones by hundreds, in the traps, early
in the season.
Mr. SovmI IWlC~=. We take up the traps after May, and do not pu~
them down ,~gain at all. The heart-seines arc kept down through the
season, because the heart-seines do not need watching, and you can go
and get the fish out at any time~ the fish remaining in them. The traps
are best when the fish come in large bodies. We catch menhaden iu
the traps sometimes; but we have to work very quick. Theheart-seines
are supposed to catch all the time.
Mr. KI~(~. Nine out of ten of the fish have spawn in them in the
spring ; they are slow and lie around~ aml will not run out of a square
trap. Gill-nets are used around here too ; they catch blue-fish in them
outside~ but they are much more scarce than ibrmerly. They say scup
~re blind when they first come, butit is not so ; they move slow because
they are tidl of spawn. Large bass are caught [,ere in the winter~ in
deep water~ with clam-bait~ but they are slow in biting. In one winter
they were thrown up in great numbers on Block Islaud~ frozen to death.
The pucker-mouth is caught ill winter in shallow water; the other flat
fish go into deeper water.
Mr. SWAN. 1 caught a Spunish mackerel about twenty years ago. We
should not get many now were it not for the traps.
Mr. Soumr~wlci;. They are caught only in the heart-seines, because the
square traps are t'tken up before they come in.
Mr. SWAN. I can remember when the blue-fish first came in ; they did
not catch them when I was a boy. It must have been forty .)'ears ago
when~ at one time that I had been fishing for tautog, I trolled ibr blue-fish~
and got several that day. Twenty years ago we couhl catch seup
in any quantity, but since the traps came in they dwindled off.
Mr. SOUTHWICK. Nobody disputes the fact that scup have of late years
been less plenty than formerly. They showed themselves quite plenty
last year. ~ear Bristol Ferry they caught them in plenty.
Mr. K[~. There were not so ma.ny barrels shippedt to :New York this
year as last.
Mr. SOUTHWlOK. That is no criterion. The great bulk of the fish are
sent directly to ~New York from the traps in vessels.
Mr. KINC~. There have not been half so many vessels on the river as
last season. I have not caught three scup in three years.
Mr. SouTIIWICI;. The potmds about Point Judith have taken more
than in any year tbr three years ; that is the general information. There
is one trap, near the Spouting Rock at Watch Hill~ which has been more
successful in getting scup this year than for a nmnber of years.
WILLIA)Z DENNIS~ ]~sq. :
Question. Have you paid any attention to the political economy of
this fishing question ?
Answer. I am a ~-cwportcr~ and mn here every year for about two
1A~ REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.
months, and I fish all the while with a line. I have fished regularly
since 1828~ and know something about it. Compared with the fshing
twenty years ago~ under the same conditions, the number of tautog
caught now would not be more than one-eighth as many. There axe no
seup now; I have not eaugh~ one this year. I have been fishing two
weeks, and fishing where soup ought to be very abundant; I have not
caught one or seen one. I consider them nearer gone than the Indians.
Twenty years ago I used to go outside for my fishing mostly~ and my
ear would hold ti'om one htmdred to one hundred and fifty pounds. In
the ordinary eondition of weather I would fill it and be home by nine
o~eloek in the morning; and when I left of[' fishing~ having eaught as
many as I wanted~ I could have caught as many more if I wished. I
think that no% fishing the same time~ under the same eireumstanees~
on the same ground, if [ saved all that I eould~ and exhausted my ability,
and got twenty-five pounds of all kinds of fisl b I should do well. I
fished for nothing except tautog. I first began to appreciate a differenee
within ten or twelve years--a very sensible differenee. I never saw
any difference until traps were set. I know that~ after the traps had
been in suecessfld operation a short time, there was a clear diminution
of the fish, the Same that there always is in eountries where birds are
trapped. You cannot shoot up the game--neither woodeoek nor pin-nated
grouse i and you cannot exterminate the fish with the hook and
line. Consequently there was no diminution until the traps were set
here. Of course the fish are diminishing all the while. I don~t believe
that to-morrow morning you can take a box of erabs~ and go out and cateh
a hundred pounds a day for a week. We don't know what they take in
traps. They say they never get any, Mthough other people have seen
them carried of[' by the eartload. They take everything fi'om a shark
down to a large ehogset. The very moment you sink your trap ~o the
bottom~ yon are sure to take shark as any other fish. Those who fish lbr
striped bass tell me they are very scarce. I have been here two weeks,
and have caught a few fine tautog, but I have eaught them all in the
river ; and of course that is no way to determine whether there are any
fish~ because if there were one or two hundred fish here at this time,
they would be sea-fish that came into the river. I remember very well
when the blue-fish eame here.
Mr. Swat>'. The blue-fish were small when they frst eame here~ not
weighing over a I)ound and a hall 'The biggest 1/ever caught weighed
iburteen pounds, i think I have seen one weighing eighteen pounds.
Mr. DENNIS. I have my own theory about squetcague. I was fishing~
six or seven years a g% off Point Judith~ when I hooked the first sque-teague
I ever caught here. I then took twelve large fish~ weighing
seven or eight pounds. I take it they require a peeuliar kind of bai L
which is becoming more abundant than it has been. There is only one
fish here that maintains its numerical i n t e g r i t y ; flm~ is the chogset.
~ir. SOUTIIW1CK. Nothing but menhaden arc used tbr manure. In
the five years that I fished [ never sold any to be put on land, exeept
about two barrels of waste fish. [ have sold~ perhaps, in that tim%
seventy-five barrels of menhaden.
Mr. Sw~N. We find the tautog two or three n files from land in winter,
and the ehogset stow away in deep water. Lobsters are pretty scarce
now. Last year 1 averaged lorry a day in my pots : this year not more
than twenty-five or thirty. Tlmy sometimes burrow themselves up in
the sand.
Captain S~I~IAN fully indorsed the statement of Mr. Dennis. He
had been fishing with him a great deal. There has been a general de-
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE t'IStIERIES. 15
preeiation of the fish since the traps have been set. The bays are so
blocked up with nets that the fish cannot come in. It will not admit of
an argmnent. I can think of nothing else than the traps as the cause of
the diniinntlon.
3[1'. SOUTItWIOK. If" traps are the sole cause of the diminution of the
seup, what could have been tile cause of the diminution of the bull's-eye~
sea-bass, blue-fish~ and squeteague~ all of which have disappeared
almost wholly in this century, and again returned~ with the exception of
the bull's eye ? I am told the sea-bass disappeared about thirty years
ago~ and then came on again.
Mr. SW;tN. I never knew them to disappear. About fifteen years ago~
one 4th of July, I trolled tbr blue-fish while going out to my lobster-pots,
and I got a striped bass that weighed thirty pounds. After I had
h'mled my pots~ I caught two more, one weighing nineteen and the other
twenty-one pounds. On the 8th of July I went again, and, alter hauling
my pots~ I cut up a little lobster and fixed my bait~ and when I threw
my line it got snarled, and in trying to twitch out the snarl, I caught a
fish ; and that day I got eight thai weighed in the aggregate two hun-dred
and seventy-six pounds after they were cleaned. I do not think
the steamboats have any influence in diminishing the fish. A steamer
coming within fifty yards of a fishing-place would not drive away the
fish. In former times, a common impression among the fishermen was
that if the heads and gills of the fish used *br bait were thrown into the
water, it would scare away the fish~ but I always throw them overboard.
I have no idea how old seup are when they spawn. I think soup as
large as a man's hand will httve spawn in then,. We generally save
the spawn of the large seup to eat. Seup move with the tide; other
fish we do not see so much, as they keep near the bottom ; the seup are
seen when they go over shallow places.
I don~t think I ever saw seup in blue-fish; I h.~ve found little mack-erel
aml shiners something like a herring, and menhaden. Blue-fish
throw out all that is in their stomach when caught.
Before traps were put in we could see the tautog in tim water about
the reek, and under the edges of the stones in. a warm day. Some say
you ca/mot catch tautog in a tlmnder-storm. That is " all in your eye."
I caught more fish in one thunder-squall than I had caught all day in
another place. When tautog are plenty, the best bait tbr themis the
crab; but. I always fish with lobsters. They eat the muscles off tim
rocks. I have seen some of the reeks covered with muscles at one time,
and then the star-fish would come and eat them all oft:
I think there are more hand-line fishermen than there were fifty years
ago. The business has rather increased during the last twenty years.
Bonito were never plenty about here. I never caught more than one
in a day and not a great nlany in all.
I have never seen any fish that appeared sickly except the cod-fish ;
that is sometimes what we call loath,. I think those have the consump-tion.
Menhaden are very bad bait tbr lobsters. If there is any in their
paunch when boiled, the oil comes right through the meat. Any strong
fish aftbct lobsters in the same way. The bulPs-eye fish was poisonous if
kept long. It was a kind of chub-nmekerel.
Twenty-five years ago~ I think, I caught 165 blue-fish in one day and
ttlree bass~ trolling. Thi~t is the most [ ever caught in one day.
16 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OV FISII AN]) FISHERIES.
~EWPORT, RHODE ISLAND,
August 2, 1871--Afternoon.
LIEUTENANT GOYEI~NOR PARDON W. STEVENS:
I have only one pound ; I do not trap at all. We thought we could
do better in buying fish. The trap is a Rhode Island institution entire-ly;
they are set only about three weeks. Previous to last year they
commenced trappiug about the 20th of April, but this year not till the
1st of May. The trap is like an oblong box, with one end knocked out.
But in a heart-seine we can hohl the fish we catch. A brother'of my
partner got a b'~ss in his pound that weighed fifty-two pounds. The
leader of the tra l) must be long enough to get to a sntlicieut depth
of water. Over on the Saughkonet side the leaders m'e two hundred
ththoms. The leaders run from east to west, with the month of the trap
to the north ; and where they set several traps, Cite leader of one runs a
little by that of another. The fishers there measure off the water and
draw for it. There is a sort of agreement among the trappers that the
leaders sh~tll be two hundred i~thoms. There is one place where they
allow them longer. On the southeast corner of the State they allow
them to go out five hundred fathoms, so as to get square with the one
at Saughkouet Point.
We scC the mouth of the trap up stream because, as the tide runs north,
the trap nmsC be right across the tide; the open part to the northwest,
and the leader on the south side. The mouth is in some instances
leaded and goes to the bottom. [ never worked a trail) at Saughkonet i
what I know about the fishing there I lea.rn when I go there to buy fish.
I never worked "~ trap except down in this bay.
I think the fish are bound eastward. I always took tim ground that
if the fish were bound to the river the traps would not hinder them. I
think the heart-seine is nmch more injurious than tim trap, if either.
Tl~ere are many days when a man cannot attend to his trap. It requires
ahnost as much attention to fish with a trap as in the hauling of a seine.
IIMf a gang attend hMf a day and the other half the rest. It usually
requires six nten to haul up Che gate to a trap. I attend one with one
1121 fin.
I had a.heart-seine at Saehuest Point, thinking that if the fish went
up the river there I would try and geC some. The leader runs from the
shore sixty-five or seventy fathoms. We attended that diligently, and
all the seup we got was two. We got perhaps ha~.f a dozen tautog~ a
few dozen codfish, and a ibw barrels of herring. We set to catch
Spanish mackerel or anything thaC would run in in the smnmcr. I was
satisfied that no fish went 'tbove, bu~ they went across. I know the fish-ermeu
do not go more than two and a half miles north of Saughkonet
Point; but we were two miles above tliem.
As a general rule, we have to set our traps ou the cast side of the
channel tbr the first run of soup..[ do not know so much about the
second run, bee~mse small seup st'~y here all summer. When you take
up a, school of these, they are ahnost a cMico-color; the first run are
ahnost white. I never saw any with regular bars on them. Some that
are cMled the Chird run of scup are caught up at the head of the bay.
I cmmot tell whether the large soup have ever been caught up at the
head of the bay, because I never fished there. My idea is that the fisll
come in east of Block Island and strike frst at Watch Hill and Point
Judith. I don'~ know how far into the Sound they go ; but they catch
them first at Watch Ff.ill. I Chink the big scup do no~ go up the West
River. [ have seen them running across Breuton's Reef on their way
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 17
eastward. Some say they are blind at first, but I never saw any that
were so; I never saw any that did not move t)retty fair. They move
faster in warm we'~ther than when it is cooler. Recently they have got
the first soup at \Va~ch Hill ; bat there used to be a trap west of Beaver
Tail light, which picked them up first. Now they have rigged it as a
pound.
Ther6 would not be more than a day's difference between the times of
catching at Fort Adams and Sanghkonet. They caught scup in Vbm-yard
Sound this year two days before we did. On the 20th of April we
caught thirteen barrels. We caught some on the 18th of April; that
was sixteen days earlier than last year. Some of the run got by and
went down to the Vineyard Sound.
Seup are more scarce than they used to be.
There were two cold seasons a few years ago, and a great many tau-tog
were frozen, and it was a number of seasons before we could get
many to supply the market here. I have heard that they are more
t)lenty this year. When they fl'oze, they were thrown up on tile :Nan-tucker
shore, and they were cut out of the ice and sent to New York.
That was in 1856-'57.
Thalt could not have affected the scut)~ because thi~y do not stay
around here. The chogset were affected in our harbor.
Question. What do you suppose has affected the abundance of the
bass
Answer. They are much scarcer than they were formerly. I do not
know what has cleaned them out. I suppose that catching some in
the spring of the year may affect them somewhat.
.No fish are used for manure excep~ menhaden. I was ready to
give two dollars a barrel for scup, and they were not worth that fbr
manure. That was the lowest price this year. The highest price was
five dollars at the traps. We get in New York just what tile commis-sion
merchants are a mind to pay us. Sometimes we do pretty well,
and sometimes not. The scup are packed in bulk in ice, and sent to
:New York or Philadelphia. A common sloop-smack from New London
carries about 100 barrels.
Question. Supposing that it is decided to try any experiments with
traps, in the way of legislation~ is there any compromise th'at can be
made between no traps at all or all that people choose to put down;
would it be expedient to attempt any limitation of the length of the
leader, the size of mesh, and time of kecl)ing them down 0.t
Answer. I judge that a limitation of time would be best.
Question. ~¥hat would be best, so many weeks or so many days in a
mouth ?
Answer. I should say, so many days. They run about,~ month, and
then the fishing in traps is all ovei'--f~om the 20th of April to the 20th
of May.
Question. Suppose it should be said that no fish shouhl be taken from
noon on Saturday to noon on Monday ; would that be acceptable ?
Answer. It ought to be ; and it ought to be made acceptable. :Now,
although half the men go home Saturday noon, the rest will make up
a gang and fish Sunday, and find a i~llow with a smack~ to whom they
will sell their catch, and then divide what they get, and thus make the
share of eaclt greater than that of the rest of the gang.
Question. How could you treat a trap or pound so that they could
not catch any fish ?
AIlswer. Have it hauled up. We haul our pound up with a long line,
leaving the bottom up about two fathoms.
S. Mis. 61 2
] (~ REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.
Question. What would you suggest as tile proper way of securing
general obedien(,e to such ,l law ?
Answer. Hold the captains of the gangs responsible ; either confiscate
their property or make a heavy penalty.
I have had a long controversy with Tallmau about menhaden spawn-ing
twice a year. Every fisherman says menhaden come along full of
spawn in the spring, and go back in fall full of spawn.
Question. Do you find slnall scup to any extent in the blue-fish that
are taken in any way excel)tint in traps ?
Answer. It is very seldom we catch them in any other way except
with the gill-net. I have found blue-fish with young soup in them;
when taken in gill-nets~ we ahnost always find scup in them. Blue-fish
caught with a drail often vomit up the tbodin them. Sometimes three-fourths
of the ibod would be young seup. I have shaken them out ot
them within ~ week. Squeteague and blue-fish do that; they will eat
anything that runs free., To-day I picked up one, and just took and
pressed on the belly of the fish, and he was full of them. The pound is
full of these small fish, and they get the little fish in the pound. I have
seen the little striped smelt in thcm~ packed in them~ and looking like
a row of I)encils. Sometimes they will come ashore with a lot of scup
in them; and then again they will have nothing but hake and sea-robins.
They will bite these off close Ul) to the fin ; and then they will
come ashore with mackerel. I have seen them with small flat-fish in
them. I don't know as I ever found a crab in a blue-fish. I have al-ways
~aken particular pains to know what the blue-fish feed on. Until
this became so extensive a watering-place~ I have shipped four thousand
pounds of black-fish to New York in ,~ year. I have shipped a thou-sand
to fifteen hundred sugar-boxes---bought them and sold them. But
then the competition became so great th'tt I could not affbrd to buy
them. What were wanted here were sold readily, and the balance were
sent off'. The retail dealers here buy fish wherever they can get them.
Two buy to send to l~ew York, in connection with what they sell here.
We caught from one thousand to fifteen hundred pounds last week.
We found them accidentally out in Saughkonet l¢iver. They come up
from the bottom every night. We catch blue.fish in gill-nets more than
in the pounds. They destroy the nets very badly.
I do not know as blue-fish are more plenty than last year ~ there have
been days when they cannot catch any. We are catching now full as
many as we did last year. We get the fish at night ; we catch the fish
below the middle of the net then ; but when the fish are playing on the
top, we get them near the top of the net. We have our nets with a mesh
two and oue-h~flf inches to four and one-half; they are from fifty to ninety
ihthoms long. They are made by Mr. Stowe, of Boston.
My partner's brother went down the other day and caught twenty-eight
bass. :If there comes a heavy sea~ on the i'~ll of the sea they can
get large bass~ plenty of them. My partneffs brother went down and
caught eight or nine hundred-weight~ and Mr. Perry Cole ~nd Mr. Dur-kee
get a great many.
Question. Are eels scarcer than they used to be ?
Answer. I think so. Whether the gas-works have affected them or not
I do not know. Six or seven years ago I was a member of the legisla.
ture~ and I went out one morning and found a man on the steps open-ing
a basket of oysters, and I could smell the coal-tar in them very
plainly. Fourteen or fifteen years ago I kept a fish-market on Long
~Vhart'~ and you could see the tarry substance rise on the water and
spread out while goitlg through the bridge. We have had a thousand
PRESENT COKDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 19
pounds of fish killed by it in one night. Scup will not go up Provi-dence
River ; it is nothing but a mud-hole. It is only in the pounds
that we get the little scup. When fish were running here, we caught a
great many young scup from two to five inches long. I never knew
anything like it before ; none of us ever saw it betbrc. If it had occurred
it would have been observed. Menhaden have been more plenty this
year th,~n for many years before. I heard a regular fisherman say lie
never knew such July fishing as there has been this year in the West
River. Menhaden are caught in the pounds in the spring of the year.
Forty to fifty barrels of menhaden wouhl be a large yiehl. But the
purse-nets take as many as they can hold, and sometimes they lose
their nets ; they cannot gather up the fish soon enough, and they would
die and sink ; and they would have to cut open the seine.
We get mackerel here in this ha.rbor ; they are poor in the spring, and
have spawn in them. In August they have no spawn in them. We do
not catch any fish much when they nre full of spawn, neither black-fish
nor scup, nor the first run of lna ckerel. Here are ninety to one hundred
sail of mackerel-catchers lying off here, and they take the fattest mack-erel
I have ever seen. Last year was the first time they have ever done
it. Mackerel lU'omise to be plenty this )-ear. There is no sale for the
springcatch ; they are poor mackerel.
Question. If we had three times as many scup as we now have~ could
we buy them for any less money ?
Answer. If the fish were not exported from Rhode Island~ they would
not be worth a cent a pound.
Question. Why has the wholesale price been less this year than
bet'ore ?
Answer. It is because of the increase of pounds in Vineyard Sound,
and they all send fish to New York. Squeteague run fronl three to ten
pounds. Large ones began to cotne here five or six years ago. They are
much larger now than they used to be. They were here once before,
and went off more than forty years ago~ and they have not been plenty
since until within a few years.
When the blue-fish first came baek~ the people would not eat them ;
there was no sale tbr them; people said they would make a sore on
those that eat them. The prejudice against them was so great that you
could not sell one in market.
In 1854 I used to catch the bulFs eye. They were here tbr a consider-able
time after that~ and had been off and on before that. Tlmy were
not a regular fi~h.
There is only one pound at Saughkonet River. I have the only one
there. There was one set up in Coddington~s Cove by a man by the
name of Clarke. He got a great many Spanish mackerel~ and that set
us after them. The right to fish is as perfect as any right we have
here in Rhode Island. The right to the fisheries and the right to the
shore are all the same. All the people have a right to go on the shore~
being only liable for any damage. There is a path clear round from the
bathing-houses to the boat-house here. The right is universally recog-nized
in Rhode Island.
~ATHANIEL SMITH :
• I am seventy-three years old.
were scarcely any fish when I
~EWPORT~ RItODE ISLAND,
August 37 1871.
[ have fished forty-six years. There
left the business~ three years ago, on
")0 RFPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISII AND FISHERIES.
account of my health. Fish used to be very plenty, so that t~ny one
could get "Is many as he wanted ; they were l)lenty until the trapping
was commenced. That was about 1828 or 1830. But I fished belbre
they lind any trapping or purse-seines. One man could catch scup
enough tbrty years ago to load a boat in a short time. I have s~.'en the
water all full of them under lny boat. Every one could catch qs many
sea-bass or tautog as he wanted. The blue-fish came around in 1834,
I think. I caught the first blue-fish, which was about a tbot long. Every
year they /)ecame molx., and more plenty ; l)ut still tlmy did not make
any difference with the other fish. It never made any odds with the
tautog nor bass-fishing, because I have (:aught the bassright among them.
I had a bass once with a scup in his throat, choked with it. 1don't think
blue-fish trouble scup at all. i never saw scup spawning ; but think they
spawn nl) the river, close in shore. I never fished tbr scup much, but they
were plet~ty, and there was no ditlicnlty in catching them until they
began trapl)ing them up. It was just so with tautog. I got tip the
first petition against tral)ping tautog, and cot seventy to one hundred
signers, and Sam Brown got one hundred. It was handed to our legis-lature,
and laid on the lable, and I suppose thrown under the table or
turned out doors. The tautog began to grow scarce twenty yeqrs ago.
They set traps up over Saughkonet shore at the tune I got up the peti-tion.
i think, if traps could be stopped, we should have fish plenty in
the course of three or fbur years. The spawn is takeli up with the lish
going in to spawn in the spring of the 5ear ; there is no Seed left in the
water for fish to grow from. Thousands and thousands of hundred-weight
of tautog have been sent to New York, besides hundreds of boxes
of scup. I have seen them take thousands of' pounds of tautog off
Gooseberry Island in a morning and send them to New York. llut now
they c:muot get them around the shores.
The blue-fish were in these waters belbre, and very large. My father
used to catch them about the year 1800, not far from that. I think,
from what was said when I caught the first one, they must have been
out of the water sixteen or eighteen years. About 1800 they were very
plenty. They first made a net of rattan to trap them, and then they all
went away in a body, and till the little ones came back they did not
return again. I used to catch the little ones and bring them to market ;
but nobody would buy them, and so I threw them away. The first man
who brought blue-fish to our market was Mr. John Springer, and he
first brought them when they came back the last time.
Scull were always here ; were here when my thther was a boy.
When I first began to catch blue-fish, they did not weigh more than a
I)ound or two apiece ; but when they were here befbre, my lhthcr said
they weighed sixteen and eighteen pounds.
They lirst began to set traps on the eastern shore about 1827 ; they
used to set them just the same as now ; they would drive the fish into
the pockets at the ends.
There are no school-bass here in the tidl of the year. In old times,
thirty or tbrty years ago, the bass were around in schoolsin September I
and would run mitil cold weather. I have caught them as late as the
10th of December. I would get from one to two hundred a day. I
used mackerel or menhaden Ibr bait. i used dead bait, but of late
years I fished with lobster bait. That would not answer only when
there was a heavy sea and the water was thick~ lused to catch aboat,
load in a day in that way. I got sixteen one morning, tbur of which
weighed 206 pounds, and the rest would weigh from thirty to tbrty
i
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. ~1 "
pounds apiece. Four or five years ago I could not catch any. Thesea-bass
are very scarce now.
Mackerel used to be caught here all the year round, but they are scarce
now.
Tile skip:jack is something like the bonito: the bonito has a d~rker
and broader stripe than the skip-jack. The bolfito is striped like an
albieore.
I don't know but one kind of sword-tish here. I know the bill-fish ;
they are a long fish, with a bill something like that of a s'word.fish. I
have seen a bill-fish three feet long. They are not at all like the sword-fish.
They have little fins like the mackerel. They followed some ship
in here ; they were here in the fall of the year and latter part of" the
smnmcr, only one year. That was forty years ao-o; I have seen none
since. The docks were all full of them then, about eight or ~eu inches
long and very black. They would bite anything you might l)U~ down,
even a bi~ of pork.
The bull's-eye fish were here from 1812 to 1830, perhaps; they were
very plenty. The women would haul them in with s e i n e s - - b a r r e l s of
them ; once in a while two or three are Caught in the fall of the year;
they were nearly a foot long, very thick and fat. One year they poisoned
every one who eat them ; people thought they had been feeding on some
COl)Per-bank ; they were mueh fatter than common mackerel. [ salted
a. barre b and carried them out to Iiawma. They were never sent from
here to a nmrket abroad. They were so tat they would rust too quick,
like the Boston Bay mackerel. Split them and they would fall apart, they
were so t~t.
Menhaden are decreasing too. In 1819 I saw ,~ school of" menhaden
out at sea, when I was going to Porfland~ that was two miles wide and
fi)rty miles loug. f sailed Olrough them. Vv~e were out of sight of land.
They appeared to be all heading southwest. There were no fish near
them. I have seen a school on this coast, three miles long. I think they
spawn in April or May.
They catch a few shad in the traps here now ; they never used to do
that. They get iflenty of herring in the spring. Herring arc bigger
than alewives; they come along together and spawn together; ~hey
spawn in April and May; they are used only for ba.it. Peol)lC never
pretcml to smoke them. There are many different kinds of herring.
~EWPORT~ Augu8t 3~ 1871
~V. E. ~VIIALLEY~ Of Narragansett Pier :
I am using a trap-seine. We work ell the tide, and we don"t care
on which side of the seine it is. We catch all kinds of fish that wear
scales, and some that don't--big fish and eels. We catch sturgeon, from
seven petards up to three or four hundred. I do not know how many
heart-seines are being worked this season. The heart-seines take the
fish both ways; the trap, only one way. Tlmy are of various sizes,
according to the locality, the leaders being fi'om seveuty-five to two
hundred fathoms. The trap-seine is calculated to take fish working
down an eddy; the heart-seine, where the tide works both ways. They
are at Horse ~Neck~ and all along where the tide sets both ways. Taking
fish in tral)S depends on tile eddies; the better the eddy tile better tile,
chance tbr fishing. When the tide sets up into the bayous, there is an
eddy when it runs back~ and the fish run in. We fish every half-hour,
22 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISIt AND FISIIERIES.
and get from a thw barrels to five huudred~ and when the tide is over
we wait ; we fish only when the tide is framing in ; we do not expect to
get as many on the ebb-tide as on tile flood~ except in some places. At
Gooseberry Island we fish on the ebb-tide. At Sachuest Point we have
fished two seasons, and I have fished at Point Judith on the flood-tide.
There is a westward tendetmy there at the ebb-tide. On the strong ebb,
these fish coming across the Sound strike through there. " A~ Goose-berry
Island I wanted a flood-tide, and that brings an eddy inside, making
a b'~y tbr a mile or a mile and a half.
On Saughkonet River there is not much tide, only when it blows fresh
to the north or south. There are two bridges there, and we always
thought we did best. at them on flood-tide. We never set any nets on
the west side. When I went there in 1857, there were eleven traps;
next year~ fifteen ; and the next, seventeen. The traps were first started
in 1846, by Ben. Tallman. He invented the trap.
Question. What do you think about the general question of traps ; do
they aflhet the quantity of fish or not ~
Answer. Yes, sir; I think, if they were stopped~the fish would be
much more plenty.
I will give my reasons why I have answered "yes. '~ I do not mean
to say that traps should not be used on our coast. I do not mean to say
they should be abolished~ but I do mean to say that~ in the way they
are handled, and used, and allowed to be set anywhere~ without regard
to water, place, &e, they are an injury to the fisheries, and are what is
killing off and curtailing the luxuries that the Creator has thrnished,
and intended should be enjoyed. My ideas are derived fl'om nine years ~
experience in trapping and seining, and I have heard the other fisher-men
say the same thing, i am a fisherman, 'rod expect to fish as long
as I do anything.
In the first place, our bays are large in proportion to the size of our
State, and the school-fish ht~ve not a place where they ean go and stop
wagging their tails h)ng enough to lay their spawn~ while the oysters
are protected. Here is a trap and there is a lmrse-net, so that from the
time they come in until they go out somebody is after them.
And, what is worse than MI, our own State's people cannot get them
at all. They will bring them in and sell them to carry away tbr a
quarter of a cent a pound, in the month of May ; and now today you
cannot buy them tbr ten cents a pound. Why? Because they have
been taken here for twenty years, before the spawning-time, a.nd sent
out of existence for nothing. If you kill a bird betbre it lays its eggs,
where is your increase ? And so, if you kill your sheep~ where is your
stock ? i3an we raise anything if we dou~t try to keep our breeding-stock
good~? Is it expected that we can have fish if we will put them
on the land for manure at a quarter of a cent a pound ? And now you
cannot buy them tbr ten cents a pound. Confute it it' you can.
When I could go out here and catch from three to five hundred-weight
of black-fish in a day, I have been tohl not to deliver then b and when I
brought them in~ to cover them ut) with scup, aim then carry them away
and throw them in the river after dark~ and not sell them in Newport.
Why ? So that the inhabitants would not know where they came ti'om.
I have doneit. They are selling fish from off Point Judith~ and sending
them to New York.
But they have thrown striped bass into the dung-heap, because they
could not get ten cents a pound; deacons of churches did that: Now
you cmmot get them at all. I used to get enough Saturday afternoon
to last my family a week i go now~ and you don't get a nibble. Give us
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 2~
some protection, and, by-and-by, we may have a place that tile fish can
go to and lay their sI)awn, and where the young" fish e'tn o'row.
Black-fish (tautog) we cannot get. Yesterday we had five men fish-ing~
and 27 pounds, 22 pounds, and 19 pounds each was the best they
could do. If it was not for lobsters, our fishermen could no~ get enough
ibr their breakfnsts.
We take s-trii)ed bass in nets, at the mouth of Saughkonet River~ and
at the back beaches. The fish run eastward in tim spring, the same as
the geese go north. But black-fish and bass can be caught here all the
year. I fish inside of the point in winter~ and outside iu summer, lVe
get bass through the ice, in winter ; sometimes a barrel of them. They
go into the mud in eights feet of water. The bass and tautog are ,%
native fish ; the blue-fish is a traveler, here to-day and gone Vo morrow.
I (lon~t care anything about them.
Shad are a fish that will run up the rivers annually if not hindered. I
have caught shad at Gooseberry Island: seveu hun(lred a day, with ,%
trap-seine. That is no rig for catching shadi but if you go to work and
prepare for it, you can catch shad plenty.
In regard to tautog, bass, and seuI5 we cammt make ~ living fishing
for them~ as we used to do. Many `% man has been driven out of the
business. I could show you a dozen good boats rotting down, all gone
to destruction; and the fishermen have taken to something else, which
they had no love i0r. It drives people `%way fl'om the Slate. V~'e had
about three hundred fishermen here twelve ye'trs ago, who got their liv-ing
directly fl'om fishing. That was their legitimate business, with the
drag-seine and hook; not with the purse-seine or trap. They did not
know anything about a trap till I set it. Two have been set tliere sim~'e.
The men have left here and gone down off the Banks ; gone to New
London to go on board fishingsmacks ; gone to the eastward and to the
southward. It is depopulating our shores of the men of that class.
There are now only about fifty men fishing where we had three hundred;
and some of the old men relnain, but all the young men h`%ve gone, the
fishing has been so killed out within the last five years. Instead of
fishing, those who remain have~ many of them, gone to taking boarders.
Unti)r~unately I got broke down, and did not earn my salt ; bat I have
followed the fishing business and have kel)t boarders. People come
here from abroad in the smumer, for what ? Because Rhode Island has
been noted for hook-fishing. Dr. Babcock comes with his rodand reel
for striped bass. This year he has caught one ; that is all. Last year
he caught two. Many others have tried it, with no better luck. They
come here tbr fish ; they dou~t care anything about our scale mea ts~ for
which I t)`%5" thirty cents a pound, that are brought from Cattaraugus
County, New York. That is the change we have made ; we send fish
out at a. cent and a quarter a pound~ and they send us beef at thirty
cents a pound. Five hmldred thousand dollars have been pa.id out to
buihl up ~N`%rragansett 1)ier~ for the purpose of a fishing-place. It is a
good~ quiet neck~ where they can go fishing, haviug a beach equal to
any; and you may see a man with his whole t/unily~ each of them hav-ing
a rod trying to catch some fish. They catch anything they ca n~
and carry it home to have it cookedj and because they cannot get what
they used to, tlmy give us the name of having depreciated ~he fish.
The ~autog ,%rid striped bass have diminished most; that is, we feel
their loss most.
Question. Supposing you were in tim legisl`%ture, and wished to draw
up such a blll as would be fair ,%nd just to all parties, what would you
do so as to control the traps as to number~ siz% plac% and time?
~ REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AHD FISHERIES.
Answer. My proposition to the legislature was, to allow ouly a certain
nmuber of nets from Point Judith to Saughkollet River, so as to allow
the fish to come in.
Question. Suppose the pounds were down from the 1st of June through
the suuuner, and only then, what wouhl be ~he effect ?
Answer. I should s:~y they should not be set before tile 15th of Juue.
From the 15th of May up to the middle of June I have caught tautog
aud scup that were full of Sl)awn, and were ready to shoo~ spawn at
the touch, mid wlleu they were t~keu into the boat they would throw
their spawn; you could almost see the fish iu tllg egg. The fish are
later in a cold, backward season.
Question. What would be the effect of this plau : To require the fish-erlneu
to take up the 1)ouuds two days in seven, sa~y ti'Oln 12 o'clock
Saturday till Monday, and have a proper peu~lty ibr violation of the
law ?
Answer. It would have the effect of making a great catch Tuesday
morning. As a general thing, they would get ahnost all the fish. I used
to do the same thing. The fish would lic back of the leader, not having
a free passage.
Question. Suppose you pull ,~p the leader ?
Answer. Then the course would be clear.
Question. Suppose you were to require that the nets be so re'ranged
that there could be no impediment ibr two or three days, would not
enough fish get by the nets so as to secure an abundant stock of the
fish, year by year ?
Answer. That would hell) ; of course it would. Why do the fish come
in to the shores~ So that every man can get them. How was it with
our fathers? I remember when my father used to say he was going off
to the beaches for Sl-Up. Every family in the spring of the year used to
go and pick up SCUl I enough Ibr their use. They smoked theln. Do
you see them now ? Wt~y not ? Because our stock-fish are taken away
at the seasou of the year beibre they have spawned. And now the
hmnau child has got to suffer lbr it. Traps are down here all summer,
and they catch eels, flounders, and Spanish mackerel~ and everything
that swims, more or less.
Question. Squeteague
Answer. We have alw'lys caught squeteague here with the hook.
They are not a new fish to me. I have always known them from child-hood.
I know you cannot go off Poiut Judith and catch a scup to-day.
I will give a dollar a pound for every scup. Teu years ago you could
catch any quantity, and there was fifteen miles of coast you might fish
o!~. The scup used to come from Point Judith to Brentou~s geef iu
about two tides. I used to have my boat ready to run back and forward,
and in about two tides or twenty=four hours after catching them at Point
Judith I got thean at the Reef. It is about twelve miles. If the wind
was northeast, they would come slower. They come in on the tide and
go back on the ebb, and sway with tile tide, going a little farther tbrward
every time. When they first come in, they are kind of nulnb ; some call
them blind. I think there is a kind of slime on the eye in winter, aud
they want a sandy bottom to get off the slime. ~From Point Judith to
Saughkonet is about/bur tides--two days.
Question. Did they COllie Inuch earlier than usual at Point Judith
this year ?
Answer. About the same. They expected them in February~ and
got the seines ready. They had them in the water in March. I always
judge by the dandelions ; when I see the ill'st dandelion, scup come in ;
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 25
I watch the buds, and when the buds are swelled full, then our traps
go in. When the dandelion goes out of bloom and goes to seed, tile
scup are gone ; that is true one year with another, though they vary
with the season. I am guided by the blossoms of other kinds of plants
lbr other fish. When high blackberries are in bloom, we c'/tch striped
bass that weigh from twelve to twenty pounds; when the l)lue violets
are in blossom--they come early--you can catch the small scoot-bass.
That has always been my rule, that has been handed down by my tbre-lathers.
Question. "When scup were plenty, and they first had traps, did they
keep them down all summer ?
Answer. One season I kept them down till the 12th of June; that
was the latest I ever kept a trap down. In the latter part of the time I
got from fifteen to twenty barrels a day; but in the early part of the
season I got a thousand or fifteen hundred barrels a day. Tha~ was ten
years ago.
Question. You think if a trap were kept down all summer, some scup
and other fish would be taken all the time
Answer. Yes. The fish are changing ground for food; today I may
go to snell a place and catch scui), and to-morrow I do not get them
there; they have worked up the /bed there. It is just the same as in
the case of herds in a pasture. We find out by one {umther where the
fish arc ; we are all along, and we signal each other when we find good
fishing. That is the way we used to fish; but now they are so scarce,
we don't tell when we find a good place. It makes the people selfish as
the pigs. That is the tendency.
Question. How long have you known SpaniSh mackerel ?
Answer. About eleven years. I don't know that I ever saw one but
once before I was fishing at Gooseberry Island. I think they might
have been here before, and they would have been taken if they had been
fished tbr in the same way, in the summer season. The hotter the
weather, the more Spanish mackerel we get. Last year we had the
hottest season for some time and the most Spanish mackerel. They
are a southern fish. I have caught them with a drail on a hook. They
are not a native of our waters. I never knew any caught thirty or forty
years ago. They are not as plenty yet this year as they were last. I
caught fifty last year in my gill-net. We get all our fish over "~t the
• pier in gill-nets--tautog, shad, menhaden, sea-bass, squeteague, and
Spanish mackerel. We use ~he menhaden as bait for sea-bass. We
get cod-fish~ pollock~ and hake in the traps. I never knew any torpedo-fish
here.
We cannot get any scup now. I have not seen one since the trapping
season was over. I have five nlcn now fishing tbr me, but none of them
get any scup. I think the blue-fish are about as abundant as last year.
They come in schools at different times. Scup first come in from the
15th to the 25th of A1)ril~ and will not bite when they first come in ;
they axe not caught with the hook until the last of May or first of June.
:Fish do not generally bite when spawning, so that any amount of line-fishing
will not destroy the fish. I have seen many a handsome fish
that I wanted, but could not tempt to bite ; they would turn aside and
leave the most tempting bait. At other times the most inferior bait
will be taken greedily. The hook ~nd line will not make any inroads
on the fish so that there will not always be a supp]y.
I never knew a blue-fish to ii~ed on scuI). Iu all my catch of blue-fish
for three years I have not been able to find one. I find squid, lances,
herring, menhaden: and the tail of the robin~ bitten off just back of the
2~ REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.
flu. I have fi)und eels in them, but llever, within three years, have I
tbund a seu l) in a blue.fish. I h~ve examined every one. I caught three
bhte-fish yesterday, and they threw out a great m~ny squid. I think
the ii~cd fl)r the young fish is as plenty as ever--as it was twenty years
ago, with the exception of the menhaden and herring. Crabs never
were more l)leuty, "rod the lobsters are more plenty than I ever knew
them. I think squid are as plenty as I ever knew them. People com-plain
that menhaden have let't the b~ly. Along about the first of Sep-tember
they will come back~ perhaps; I know that in al)out the way
they genelally do.
The hmcc is ibund all along the coast ; I never found it buried in the
sand.
I only know one kind of sword-fish and one kind of bilLfsh. I have
seen the saw-fish when I was a boy--'tbout thirty-six years ago. They
lbllowed some sulphur-bottom whale in.
IdDY~ARD E. TAYLOR :
I have ca~ught but a few fish; I want something done to try to save
the fish ibr my ehihlren.
Question. How are we to help your cilildreu to get fish ?
Answer. You will have to abolish traps. I used a trap-seine this
spring, but I "nn now running gill-nets. We have only three, one hun-dred
and sixty or one hundred and seventy fathoms in all. We have
caught about ~ dozen Spanish m'tckerel this year. We sell our blue-lish
at five cents a pound to the dealers here ; to families we sell some at
eight cents a pound. I do not find scup in blue.fish.
I have seen scup, and blue-fish, and sea-bass all come to lay b'tit in
the deeIb clear water, ~t the same time, down back-side of Gay Head.
I would drop my line down, and I could see them when they came to
the bai~ in about twenty tbet of water. I used menhaden~ cut up, for
bait.
~,'Ve got ~ great many small scup in the traps in the l a t t e r part of
May, about two to two and a half inches long, i'igh~ at the south side
of the island. I caught ~n albicore last year that weighed 550 I)ounds.
It was sent to Providence for steaks. It was sohl tbr ten dollars. Last
year we caught a fish called cero that weighed 7.} pounds; it was sold
for five cents a pound, not knowing the worth of it.
I owned a trap before the war, and sold out very cheap, to go to the
war ; ~nd when f came back, ,~fter three years, I fbund the fish had de-creased
very much. I was the first witness ou the stand before the
cmumittee of the legislature against the traps. As long as the law
allows any one to fish with seines~ I shall do it ; and as soon as they
make a law to stop it, I shall stop.
I do not know what protection is best; I think there should be a law
to prevent fishiug at certain seasons, or with nets of ~ certain size of
mesh. A great many sma,ll seup are caught in the traps aud destroyed,
because the I)eople are too lazy to let theln go.
[ can recollect when yon could catch bass all day long; now I have
to turn out every day, at from one to two o'clock in the morning, "rod to
get my lines in as quick as it is light, for after the sun is two or three
hours high they will uot bite, unless it is thick water aud a heavy sea.
I have fished with another gentleman three years~ and I do uot think
we have c~mght a bass in the afternoon. He is all amateuY sportsman,
and he likes to go now better t haa when the fish were plenty, because
it is more of ~ science to catch one when there are but ~ few. I have
PRESE:h'T CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 27
had a bass run out sixty-four fathoms of line ; one run out the length of
three lines. He weighed 48 pounds.
l~I', GARDNER BREWER :
I have been a resident at the end of the avenue eleven years, and [
think the tautog and blue-fish are falling off very much. I do not think
fifty have been caught off my grounds this year. My friend and neigh-bor,
Mr. Mixter, who came here about eighteen years ago~ sold his place
in disgus L because he could not get fish. That was his great pleasure,
and he went off almost in a rage. He used to scold a great deal about
the destruction of fish in the spring. [t is Ieally ,% great misfortune to
:Newport. I used to see `% dozen boats fishing off my place at a time,
but now they have abandoned it. I have not seen a boat ~hcre this
ye`%r.
Testimony of E. E. TAYLOR resumed:
When I w`%s a boy, I could catch four or five hundred scup here early in
the morning, and, after coming ashore `%nd peddling them out~ two for a
cent--and sometimes not get my pay at that price--would then go off in
the afternoon and catch as many more. Irecollect that when the factories
stopped, in 1857, [ think, the people were thrown out of work, but they
could go and get fish in any quantity to live on, soup and blue-fish.
The poor people could go off and get as many as they wanted without
auy trouble. Soon after the twine went into the water. The first piece
of twine I set was a mesh-net, with `% two and a half inch bar--too big.
It would fill chuck full of scup. Then I and my brother-iu-l`%w, George
Crabb, went to fishing together, and got a net twelve feet deep and
thirteen fathoms long, and we could get as ninny soup as we could
haul ; but I suppose now you could not gc~ half a dozen there. Then I
bought a $40 net ; and then, with others, we bought a large trap.
We have done very little in c`%tching blue-fish. We caught more last
year in two weeks than all I have caught this year. It looks to me like
a miracle how any fish ge~ by the traps. The coast is strung all along
full of twine; andhow the fish can go eastward and get back ag`%in I do
not know. About the only thing thus can account for it is the occa-sional
heavy seas. When the water is thick it keeps so off the shore
two miles, and the fish tbllow along the edge of the thick water ; that is
the only way that they escape.
Question. Do you think that if all sorts of nets were abolished, fish
would be more plenty in three years ?
Answer. Yes, sir. I think that where there is one now there would
be a hundred in three years.
Question. Suppose we say~ "You may fish with as many gill-nets and
draw-seines as you ple`%se, but not with traps," how would that be ?
Answer. It would not make a great deal of difference.
Question. Suppose we say "You shall not fix your nets except in the
tide-way ?"
Answer. That would not effect any thing. We moored our gill-nets at
each end-with anchors ; they do not swing with the tide. We set them
in as still water as we can. The mackerel run with tile win(l~ and we
set so that they shall strike square.
I do not see tha~ the blue-fish run any lower this year than last. We
cutch them about the middle of the net. We have seventy-six meshes
deep~ and catch them about midway. We have a 4~inch mesh; we
catch some all the way down. As `% general thing, we catch them tha~
2(~ REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.
weigh from 2} pounds up to 7 and 8 pouuds. An eight-I)ound blue-fish
is rare. X~e caught this morning eighteen fish ; yesterday morning we
caught fifty. That is big. For three mornings we took nothing but
two little dog-fish and some butter-fish.
We send our fish to New York sometimes. We open our blue-fish. I
do not find seup in any of them. The dog-fish that we have around
here feed on crabs ; sharks feed on menhaden. The heaviest shark we
have around here is the thresher; they feed on menhadeu. I saw a
thresher-shark kill with his tail~ which was nearly eight feet lon~', half
a bushel of menhaden at one blow~ and then he picked them up oft' from
the water. They come up tail first~ and give about two slams, and it is
"good-by, John," to abou~ half a bushel of menhaden. The body of
the thresher-shark is about a foot lon~er thau the tail.
When the bluefish first came here and were caught~ people used to
think they were poison. My ~thei'~ who was eighty4wo years old when
he died~ said they used to catch bluefish that weighed sixty pounds.
That was a long time ago. 1 can recollect when they first began to
catch them here; it was about thirty two years ago; I was about ten
years old. My father said sheep's-head used to be caught here in great
abundance some ibrty-iive or fifty years ago. I used to have to fish all
day to get as much money as I now do for the few fish I catch. The
scarcer the fish the higher the price. I have peddled striped bass about
the streets at four cents '~ pound ; now th@ sell at the market at from
seventeen to twenty cents a pound.
±NEWPORT. August 3~ 1871--Evening.
At the office of Captain Maey~ custom-house~ this evening~ there were
present several fishermen~ some interested in traps, and othcrs who tish
only with lines.
Mr. S.ana, ii, an old fishermau~ said scup and tautog were growing
more and more scarce. This~ he thought~ was owing to the use of
seines. Hehad not caught a soup in tour years with a hook. Tell years
ago he could make good wages catching seup. The first of June was
the time he tirst started for fishing. When they frst come in, scup
will not bite for about three weeks. They are full of spawn then~ and
are going up the river. He never saw ~ scup spawn. Had no~ caught
a blue-fish this year; it would not pay a man to fish for them with a
hook. I used to catch three hundred pounds in a day. BIuc-fish came
in here first about forty years ago. They bcgan to grow scarce about
ffteen years ago.
Mr. ~¥1LLI&5[ I:~ECO]gD. I set gill-nets myself; I set the frst seven
years ago. It was not unusual to catch front five to eight hundred
pounds in a d'~y. I am now setting from two hundred and fifty to three
hundred and fifty fathoms, instead of fifty ~hthoms. that I had at first.
Once I caught twelve or thirteen hundred weight~ but generally I don~t
think we caught over five hundred weight. I have five nets now ; but
I don~t catch as many fish as I did when I had one net~ sevcn years
ago. We fish on the beach inside of the point, near what we call the
Beach House. We set the nets so as to break the tide~ and therefore
we calc(date to set inside of the points of' the small bays. I dou~t think
there is one fish in a hundred that there was twenty years ago. Then
it took half a. dozen men to keep the net clear; now we generMly
haul thcm once a day~ and they are not overloaded.
PRESENT CONDITION OF TI-IE FISIt~RIES. 29
I catch once in a while a Spanish mackerel. They came along some,
~ fi)rtnight ago, so~ that there would be tbur, three, or two iu the net at
~ time ; then, for several days I did not catch ally. tIot. cahn weather
is the time to catch theln, i have never seen them schooling around
like blue-fish.
[One person present said one hundred and sixty Spanish mackerel
were caught at one haul up at Coddington's Cove.]
The gill-net does not catch one4burth as many as a heart-seine. In
Vim gill-net it is very seldom that we catch a blue-fish weighing less
th~n three pounds. A small Spanish mackerel goes through our net.
The greater part of the fish ~re caught about a fathom below the snr-fi~
ce, in a gill-net. We catch most when we h,~ve southerly winds ; not
many with northeast and north winds.
The first run of scup was more plenty this year than last; but noth-ing
compared with nine or ten years ago. Governor Stevens and Mr.
~Vhalley took up their net, and they turned out seven hundred barrels
of scup, because they could not sell them. Afterward they sold them
at Point Judith~ for eighteen cents a barrel. They sold some/'or twelve
cents a barrel~ and I have no doubt they got more tlmt year in that
one trap than have been caught in all the traps in Rhode Island this
year.
They made some good hauls in 1863, but they have been grow-ing
more and more scarce ever since. Governor Stevens took all of
10,000 barrels of scup that se,~sou. A thousand barrels were lost. They
were saving them to get $1 25 a barrel, and they had to sell them for
60 cents a barrel. When they were taken out, 250 barrels were put on
board a Fall River schooner. I used to see laxge schools of scup off
outside, when I was fishing, but I lmve not seen any lately. They are
growing scarce, from some cause; we are either working them Ul5 or
else we are growing so wicked that they will not come to see us.
Twenty years ago it was no trouble to go down and catch fYom half a
dozen to twenty small-sized bass in ~n afternoon; but re)w, when
anybody catches three or four bass, it is told of as something strange.
Fish are plenty in ~ew York~ bec,~use where there was one seine years
ago, there are twenty now.
in the spring of the year, the average size of scup is a pound and
half.
[One person said he was present one morning this year when Mr.
Hol t ' s heart-seine was dr~t~r n, and there were as manxT ,~s ts~r ent5T bar rel s
of little soup turned out.J
Tae small seup follow after the big ones, and there is a class th,~t is
called mixed scup, coming along about a week after the first run of 1,~rge
scup. Small scup are caught all summer, with heart-seines--last year's
soup.
They used to set the seines about the middle of April, but now they
do not until the last of April or the first of May; this year they came
along rather earlier than usual. The nets are generally kept down
about ~ month. All the nets were put down this year about the same
time, and they all began to catch scup as soon as they were down. They
got five dollars a barrel for the first scup ; then down to three. They
are not used for nmnure now. They have been going down in number
steadily since 1862 ; they were put on the hm(l in 1862.
Menhaden come along after the first run of scup ; they do not purse
menhaden till after they get through with the scup. They used to put
down the traps about the 20th of April~ and took them up about the
30 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.
20th of l~Iay, when they went into the menhaden fishing; but now they
keep the traps down through May.
When I was a boy I used to see men who followed tautog fishing go
off in the early morning, and come back with as many as they could sell
by 7 or 8 o'clock in the tbrenoon ; now you cannot get any to sell by
going all day.
The striped bass that winter on our coast have dwindled off to nothing.
GEORGE D~VININELL :
Ill 1835 they put their seines together near Point Judith, and they
caught fish by thousamls ; they have never been so plenty here since.
In one trap there were 20,000 small bass caught in one season ; they
were sold at 25 cents a dozen. We used to catch them weighing fl'om
two to fi)ur pounds ; now we dou~ get any of that size. At one time I
caught bass for a week that weighed from twenty to sixty pounds ; then
there was a seine put in, and they started off.
Mr. MACY :
I have seen 2,000 pounds caught here in a (lay.
what he caught in one day for 822.
George Mason sold
) [ r . ~_~{ITII :
Seven years ago the 28~h day of June, I sold fifty-six dollars' worth,
that I caught before 6 o'clock in the morning ; I got eight cents a pound
for them.
GEORGE CRAB:B :
I do not average more than two dollars a day, fishing. The greatest
catch in one day this year was 206 pounds ; I have not caught over 200
pounds a day but twice this year--once 201 and once 206. They were
extraordinary days, and I fished from 3 to 4 o~clock in the morning till
6 o'clock in ;the afternoon. If I had fished as long a few years -tgo, [
should have got more than my boat would carry. I have loaded my
boat with sea-bas% but I cannot get any now ; I think my average catch
has been about sixty pounds ,% day, during this season. The season is
best about four months. I used to catch blue-fish ; this year 1 have not
caught any.
~[r. SMITtt :
I have caught twenty-four blue-fish with a hook and line; they are
not worth fishing for.
Mr. C. H. BURDIGK :
Four years ago last 5Iay I went off fishing, and caught 63 blue-fish in
one school; that night my brother-in-law, who had a seine in Coddiug-ton~
s Cove, caught over five thousand pounds. The school went right
up the river, and they caught them.
)1r. )lACY :
V~hen I first came here, there would be thirty or forty sail of smacks
here for fish. There has been a great falling off until this year~ when
there are scarcely any. About all the fish caught here have been
shipped from the steamboat wharf.
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 31
3{r. RECORD :
Mr.~:.Swan's father told me that at the beginning of the present cen-tury
soup were a new fish.
Extract from correspondence with parties near 2~¥up, ort.
~ NEWPORT, ]~. I.~ A~gust 4, 1871.
"About the 10th of October, in the year 1869, Captain Joseph Sher-man
and ~¥illiam B. Gouo'h in three honrs' fishing caught 250 pounds of
tautog and 40 pounds of cod and sea-bass. Another boat occupied
the same ground the same d~y, and caught 250 pounds tautog--two
men fishing.
"WM. B. GOUGH2 ~
~ ]-~'EW1)OR% August~ 1871."
" DEAR SIR : Thinking yon might wish to verity-, or inquire more into
the matter while here, I send you the statement of Captain Garritt, of
Westerly, lChode Island. He has known bass caught in June that
weighed from half to one pound, that were first put iuto a pond, and, when
taken out in October following, weighed six pounds. A boy living with
him caught, at the mouth of a small brook, two miles above the fishing-ground
on Pawcatuek River, a female tautog weighing about 5 pounds.
it was very ihll of far-developed spawn. H~ thinks the spawn would
weigh a pound. The water where taken was not over one foot deep.
tie also states that the light-house keeper, (not the, present,) Mr. Pendle-ton,
lost a bob fishing for bass at Watch Hill, that was taken next day
with the fish in Long Island Sound. It wfis identified mid returned to
him.
"Yours, wit.h respect:
uj. M. K. SOUTttWICK.
"Professor ~BAIRD? ~
" TIVERI'ON, August 11, 1871.
a DEAR SIR : I have been informed that you are collecting information
about fish for the purpose of guiding Cougress, if they see fit, to take up
the question. If so, I should like to submit some thcts to you about
their increase~ decrease, &% that have come under my observation.
"This question is important, for it aflbets a large number of people,
and there are large sums of money invested, and hasty legislation upon
one-sided facts might ruin men, and all trouble might be averted pro-vided
the proper facts were presented.
"My opinion is that man is not an enemy of a salt-water fish. I mean
by that statement that all machinery yet devised by man tbr taking fish
does not perceptibly affect the supply, although there are many facts
about fish, looked at superficially, that would tend to lead a man to a
dii~rent conclusion. ~or instance~ soup have disappeared from Nan-a-gansett
Bay. Some say seines have been the cause, or traps. But
squeteague have taken their place, and where, ten years ago, there were
millions of scup, now i~here are almost none, but millions of squeteague.
How does that square ? If the traps destroy one, why not the other, for
they both come the same course ~nd both are caught in traps. But the
most siguificant fact in relation to the squeteague question is, they don't
come few at a time and gradually increase from year to year, but sud-denly
appear. Hundreds of acres could be seen any clear day between
3.9, REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISIIERIES.
Point Judith and Providence; and the same unexplained cause can be
shown by facts of every fish that inhabit our waters. For ten years
there have not been blue crabs "tbout here. This year the water was alive
with them about a.s large as a three cent piece, and pt'obably in a year
or two they will be as thick as they nsed to be when you could catch
easy three bushels at a tide. Ten 5ears ago there were twenty square
miles of blue muscles off Hyaunis. In a few years they disappeared.
"Tell me where I can see you, and I will come and talk with you. I
shonld like for you to come to Round Pond~ Maine; and I would see that
you were shown this fish question as you ought to see it~ by going among
the fishermen and observing its practictfl workings. I would furnish
you every facility, and I think you would like it. I shall be in 5"ew
Bedford within "~ tbrtnight; and if you are to be in that vicinity~ let me
know, and I will find yon if my business will let me.
"Write me, and send your letter to Round Pond~ Maine.
~ Yours;
"])AVID T. CHURCH.
"Professor BAIRD/~
~NAUSIION ISLAND~ VINEYARD SOUI~D~
Avgust 23~ 1871.
Testimony of PETER DJkYIS~ of Noank; who has two pounds in Buz-zard~
s Bay~ on the northwest side of ±N~anshon :
I h'~ve been here all the spring ; got in about the first of May or last
of April. A i~w scup were here then. They caught them westward of
us betbre we put down. I think most of the scup had gone by on the
1st of May ; they were the first fish we caught.
My idea about fish striking the shore is~ that they strike in square
fron~' deep water when they find the water of ~ certain temperature.
They run close to the shore, and~ if the shore rises gradually, they will
come in very close to it, into very shoal water. We have caught plenty
of small seup, and they are plenty now. They are five or six inches
long. We first caught these small ones about the last of June ; none of
them earlier than that. We get very few big scup now. I have made
up my mind this year that seup grow pretty fast. I think a year-old
seup weighs about three-quarters of a pound. We get some that dor/t
weigh over half ~ pound that I think were spawned this spring.
I have fished at Montauk five or six years. V~,'e have caught a few
stingarees here~ but do not catch many now ; it is late in the season for
them~ I think. We used to get them up at Montauk mltil the last of
July and into August. I do not recollect but three kinds of stingarees
caught here. We are not paying expenses now. We got some mack-erel
early; and we get t~ few squete~gue. Blue-fish have been more plenty
this year than last. They ~re a very uncertain fish~ anyway. They are
somewhere; of course~ but they don~t show themselves all the time. I
don~t think there is ~ny greater variety of sharks and rays ~t Montauk
than here. We used to get ,~ silver-fish there that weighed forty pounds.
The scales were two aud one-half inehes~ and looked as if they had
been plated. ']:he fish was shaped a good deal like the salmon. They
had a curious-shaped mouth, that seemed to have a joint in it; where
the lower jaw slid into the upper one.* Squete~gue eat scup either in
or out of the pounds i they are as voracious us blue-fish. We get foI
Probably MegaIops thrissoides.
PRESENT COI~,-DITION OF THE FISHERIES. 33
blue-fish about five cents a pound ; but we make the most on squeteague.
\Ve have t'~ken 10,000 1)ouuds of squeteague this year; we took 6,000
I)om~ds at. one haul in the middle of June. That was nearly the first
run. The biggest squeteague we have caught, I thiuk~ would weigh
tel~ pounds. A north wind or northeasterly wind is the best for fish
here.
REUBEN DYER, at Mr. Forbes's farm, west end of Naushon :
We caught two or three scnp a day ; not so many this year as last.
There are more l i t t l e scup around the wharves near New Bedford than
there are here. Squeteague are not more than half as plenty about
here this year as last. We catch them up at Quick's Hole. When
fishing fbr tautog, once in a while we would c~teh one. We use men-haden
as bait for squeteague. Most are caught after dark. We used
to catch a good many bluefish a[ the bottom. All fish are scarcer this
year than last. There have not been any blue-fsh around this year,
except very small ones. I have seen, tbrmerly, this hole (Robinson's
Hole ~, all alive with blue-fish.
Scup began to get scarce about here seven or eight years ago. The
decrease was llOt sudden, but gra~lual. I cannot sa.y it was the traps,
exactly. I think the blue-fish destroy a great many fish ; they eat up
the little fish.
The men who have pounds here caught a few mackerel the first part
of the season. They do not catch many Spanish mackerel ; but a few
bonito. I do not think shore-seines destroy the fish much; but some
kinds of fish are destr%ed by traps.
SYLYANUS W]~STG-ATE~ at Robinson's Hole :
I "tin out on ~ seining-cruise. I have a net of about sixty fathoms. I
am not (loi~g much now ; catch some blue-fish and bass. I generally
haul at night. I think [ should not catch anything in the day-time. I
have not caught a hundred scnp in five years with the seine. I have not
caught any bass this year that weighed over twenty pounds. I dou~t
think they are half as plenty as last year ; there is no kind of fish as
plenty, unless it is menhaden.
Mr. I)Ynt{,. I have caught three sea-bass this year. A few years ago
I could go out and catch fifty or sixty.
)It'. WESTGATE. I think the traps destroy the fish ; I dou~t think the
seines do much hurt. ~Ve have seined ever since we were born; but a
trap is a stationary thing, and if a fish is going by he must go in.
Mr. DY'ER. They catch more than they can sell in the traps. The
1)ockets are sometimes crowded~ and a great many die. This spring
they could not get smacks to take the fish to l~*ew York fast enough.
)~ir. ~VESTGATE. The 5, need not try to stop trapping; they will run
themselves out pretty soon.
Mr. DYng. The fish taken at the pound here are not worth $25 a day.
Last year a man hired the privilege of the pound at Menemsha Bight~
and he sold 81~200 worth in a week. Sqaeteague are not half as plenty
this year as last. The seal) ~ sea-bass~ and tautog~ when they come in in
the spritlg, are full of spawn, ready to shoot. They have ripe spawn in
them when they come into the pounds. I had some and dressed them,
and found spawn in them so ripe you could not take out the spawn whole.
Mr. XVEsTr*ATE. I think blue-'fish and squeteague kill about -,s many
fish as 1)ounds. A blue-fish will kill twice his weight in a day. A blue-
S. Mis. 61 3
(~ REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHER[I~S.
fish will go wherever scup can g% and they feed at the top more. They
feed at the bottom at night.
Mr. DYI~n. i can tcU you just my opinion about traps. If they did
not catch the mother fish in the spring~ when they come along the shores
to spawn, I don't think they would destroy the fish a great deal. They
should not 1)e allowed to put them down so early. I think they should
not be allowed to put them down bclbre the 1st of June. By that time
the bottom fish have got through spawning.
Squeteague come about the 10th of June; they come from the west-ward;
they catch them ~t Long Island betbre we do here.
Question. \Vhat would you say of the plan of allowing them to fish
at any season, but requiring them to draw up the net two or three days
in a week "~
Answer. That would be a good idea.
Mr. \VI~ST(}ATE. I do not think Sl)anish mackerel have been around
here many years i they were something new to m% aud I had been fish*
ing twenty years.
Mr. ])yl~p~. I never saw a Spanish mackerel till this year.
Mr. WESTGaWE. I never saw a bonito till two or three years ago; I
have not caught many this year. I think new fish are coming on to ttle
shores~ and if it were not tbr the l)ouads we would have them plenty.
PASQUE [SLAND~ VINEYARD SOUND~
Chub-House, Pasque, A~gust 23, 1,~7I.
PIIILIP C, HARS~ON~ treasurer of the clnb~ thought it a gross outrage
to have fish-pouuds on tileshore near. This pound was kept, he said,
by New London men. There was a much larger caI)ital mnph)yed
in pound-fishing than he had supposed--between five and six millions of
dollars. Fifty bass destroyed in the spring prevents a vast ammmt of
increase.
PETEI¢ BALEN, a member of the club, said he understood th:tt
the trappers threw away, at one time, alarge number of dead black-fish,
(tautog.) There ~re not as many tautog as there used to be
by nearly one in twenty. Tlmre is a great diminution of the ground-fish.
The bass are more scarce. I think the traps interfere with them
very much. We had a law passed to prohibit dr~wiug a seine on this
island ; but. they draw a net every night, and if I were to go and try
to stop them, they would insult me. I am persuaded the trappers do
not make any money/br themselves, and they perfectly clear the whole
coast of fish. I think the great evil of the traps is, that they cat('h the
fish in spring before they have spawned. I do not think the blue-fish
diminish the other ]duds of fish that I spoke of. They generally lbllow
the menhaden.
5It. HARMON. The blue-fish have very materially diminished along
here within three years, to such an extent that when fishing off our
stands we do not take more than two or three in a day. Out here
I have caught as many as sixty in a day by drailing for them.
~rou we cannot c~tch any. The blue-fish and bass accompany eqch
other, 1 thiuk. The blue-fish chop up the menhaden, and the bass pick
uP the pieces. I don't think there is one blue-fish where there were fifty
few years 'ago.
Mr. BALEN. Two. of us caught twenty eight bass once, weighing from
five to twenty pounds apiece.
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISItERIES. 35
THohI,~_s E. TI~IPLER~ a member of the elub~ said he had been here
eight days~ and had caught twenty-four bass, weighing from four to
twenty-nine pounds. I think they are more plenty than they were last
year.
~[ENE~ISHP~ BIGHT~ ~[AI~TH.4_'S VINEYARD~
]~AST OF GAY HEAD~ VINEYARD SOUND~
September 22, 1871.
JASON LUCE ¢~ CO., (the company consists of Jason Luee and Brother~
~[r. Tilton~ and two- other men :)
Blue-fish are quite plenty near l~oman"s Land as late as ~November.
We find little fish in the stomachs of blue-fish ; we have taken out
small seup. I took forty-two scup about two inches long out of the
stomach of oue blue-fist b a year ago this summer, out at the eastward
of Edgartown. The blue-fish weighed about three and a hMf pounds.
Besides the fbrty-two that I counted, there were some so fh.r gone that
they could not be counted.
Menhaden average from 225 to 240 in a barrel. We caught this ye.lx
2~000 barrels~ or about 4=70,000 menhaden. We caught over 100,000
mackerel ; not so many as last year. We began fishing about the 12th
of April, and caught alewives first. We caught about 100,000 dog-fish
this year. All fish were earlier than usnalthis year. Mackerel generally
come from the 5th to the 10th of May~ though we get some scattering
ones earlier. Menhaden come next. Tautog come early, with the her-ring.
We catch shad the last days of April. When we see blue-fish~
we cotmlude the spring fishing is at an end. We generally catch them
about the middle of June~ going west. We see acres of them schooling
off here. They are over in the Bay ten days earlier than here. Some
come into the Sound through Quick's Hole. Menhaden are taken in
the Bay befbre we see any here. We catch seup here just about the time
they do at Saughkonet. I think a part of them come in by way of Saugh-konet,
and a part by Gay Head. Scup are around ~Noman's Land~ and
are caught there with the hook. We have noticed ,~ good many young
scup this year ; never saw them so be~bre. This is the third season we
have fished in the summer and i.~ll~ but this is a new thing to see so
many young soup. I was up in Connecticut last week, "rod they told me
the young scup were numerous there. The scup we take in the pound
are spawning fish. We take them weighing from one and a half to two
pounds. Many will not weigh over half a pound. We catch more of
that size than of the large size. ][ have dressed scup that were not very
large which had the red-roe in them, which we callripe. I think we find
spawn about as often in the medimn sized fish as any.
We have every opportunity of knowing what fish eat, and about their
spawn~ because we handle a great many. We can squeeze young ones
out of a dog-fish any hmnth in the year. Last year we caught a drum.
We caught two sahnon this year. We catch what they call s e a - t r o u t - -
not more than three or four in a season. We catch the sahnon in May.
V~re catch a few blue.fish, squeteague~ and skip-jack, or bonito. We have
caught, 150 albieore at a time. ~ We have caught as ninny as 500 this
year. They hring: six cents a pound. V~Te catch lump-fish in the season
of all sizes, up to twenty inches long. They are as apt to get the first
scup at Lombard's Cove as we are here.
Orcyu~ts thyunus.
~(~ REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.
I suppose we catch more fish in our two pounds than are caught in all
the other pounds in the Sound put together. We think this is because
we are so near the ocean. When both pounds are in operation, we catch
more fish in the eastern one. Later in the season we see schools of fish
coming from the west.
We can judge something of the way fish are going by those that are
gilled in the leaders. We have caught the conger-eel in the spring.
They are a spotted fish~ and have considerably large holes in the side of
the mouth. VVe catch many of them every year. We catch the true
eat-fish also every year.
• Question. What would you rent your pound for by the month and
man it--fve hundred dollars ?
Answer. If you would say five thousand dollars a month, we might
talk about it.
Betbre we came here with our traps~ the herring had begun to diminish
up in Squib-Nocket Pond. But last year they could catch as many as
they wanted--from five to ten thousand at a time.
Last year and the yeqr before they caught more thau they had in any
year for thirty years. Scup began to diminish long before we put down
pounds here. Summer trapping .would not pay without the spring
trapping. I have dressed t~mtog in the month of August chock-full of
spawn.
Question. Would it suit you to propose to close the pounds for a cer-tain
time in each week ; say from Saturday noon until Monday noon ;
and make the law imperative on all the pounds, so that no fish should
be taken during that time by anybody; and with such penalties that it
will be absolutely certain that the law will be enibrced'?
Answer. That would suit us better than to be stopped entirely. We
would like that, of course, if we could not do any better.
Question. What would be the best way to prevent fish from going in
the pounds ?
Answer. Close the door ; and if they went into the heart~ they would
pass right under.
We make a good deal of money on mackerel; and it is no worse for
us to catch mackerel than tbr the mackerel-catchers. The money that
we make on tautog and scup is a mere trifle. We make money on the
fish that nobody pretends to catch with the hook. We have been iu
the pound business about ten years, aud I do not see any diminution of
fish of any kind. Mackerel last year were plenty with us.
There should be a pretty heavy penalty~ in order to carry the thing
through ; and it ought to be so.
Question. What should be the nature of the penalty ?
Answer. I should say put it pretty heavy, for we should obey the law.
Question. How much ?
Answer. [All present agreed that $1,000 was not too much.]
Question. Would you advise a fine and confiscation of the equip-ment
?
Auswer. Yes, sir ; that is a good idea.
Question. VVhat would you think of requiring a liceuse~ in order to
put down a pound ?
Answer. I should like that very well
Question. How ihr apart should the pounds be of,$wo different par-ties
?
Answer. About a mile.
Question. Would you say that~ when a license to place a pound in
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISItERIES. 37
any given locality was gr~nted, that there should be no change of loca-tion
without a new license ?
Answer. There should be no change to any great extent. It is not
a common thing to change a pound from one point to another.
I think we should f~re better to have the United States control the
business than to have the State do it. We want all to be served alike
in the fishing business, as well as other things. If we cannot fish, we
don't want our neighbors to fish. If we could have our rights secured
to us by a license, it would be better for us.
[All agreed that if it was a uniform thing to have the time of fishing
restricted, it might be quite as well.]
Boston is the market tbr mackerel. We catch a great deal of bait to
supply the cod and mackerel fishermen. We don~t catch the kind of
fish that the people are contending fi)r after the 1st of June.
We never hauled our trap on Sun'day, and are not disposed to do it ;
if the fish come in then, well and good. We have caught but few
striped bass~ perhaps sixty or seventy.
One of our leaders is 216 fathoms and the other 225.
About one hundred and fifty barrels of scup in a day is as m~ny as
we have caught this year.
Last year~ on the 28th of September, mackerel were more plenty in
this bight than we ever saw them. Our traps were not down then ; we
have never fished so late as that. But we propose, to keep our traps
down this year till the end of the season.* The ihll mackerel are small.
In the spring they are larger, and we get all the way ti'om two to eight-een
cents apiece for them.
The bill-fish, as distinct from the sword-fish, is found near here. The
sword is smaller ; the fin does not hook over like that of the sword-fish,
but goes straight up ; but not so high as the fin of the sword-fish. The
sword is not so flat. There is a good delft of difference in the eating.
You can see any quantity of them sometimes; but they are shy.
LDGARTOW-N, ~ARTHI'S VINEYA]~D~
September 27, 1871.
This evening there were present at an examination of the subject of
fisheries the ibllowing-named persons, who are employed in fishing, but
who have formerly been commanders of ships, and several of them
captains of wh.de-ships: Captain Francis Pease, Captain Charles Mar-chant,
Captain Alexander P. Fisher, Captain Gustavus A. ]~ylies,
Captain Joshua H. Snow, Captain Theodore Wimpenny, Captain Ruf'ns F.
Pease, Captain Thomas C. Worth, Captain Thomas Dexter, Capt.qin
John P. Fisher, Captain George Coffin, Captain Josiah C. Pease, Captain
Leonard Courtney, Captain George A. Smith, Captain Richard tIolley;
Captain Grafton N. Collins, Charles F. Dunham~ esq., Dennis Conrtney~
ttenry B. ttuxibrd~ William Simpson, Hohnes W. Smith, John Vinson~
Thomas Dunham.
The persons who principally spoke ibr the others were Captain Francis
I~ease, Captain Rufus F. Pease, Captain Josiah C. Pease, gnd Captain
George Coffin.
+ They were kept down into October~ but no mackerel were taken.--S. F. B.
, : ) t REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISI[ AND FISHERIES.
Captain Fg,~ols Pn,~sE. Fish are getting a great deal scarcer than
they used to be. A few years ago you could sit on the end of the
wh:~rf and catch fish enough before breakfast lbr :~ family. Any boy or
old gentleman couhl do it. iNow they are gone. The scarcity com-menced
when they began to put down the pounds. There used to be
seu 1) and tautog all through the harbor here ver b" plenty, but now we can
scarcely ~4et any that are eatable; we have to go out of the Sound.
Every year we have to go farther out.
I do most of my fishing outside, i have not noticed the harbor as
much as the other fishermen, and do not know about there being young
seup here, though there always are some. I was on the wharf fishing
fi)r cunners and [ got two or three little scup.
There are no traps on the island this side of' ttohnes's Hole. Up at
Mencmsha they caught up so many fish that they could not dispose of
them. We do not get blue-fish as plenty as we used to. There are ~
good many caught with seines. The boatmen think they have not done
as well this year as before. 3{ost of the fish c~mght here are shipped to
New Bedford and New York. There 'n'e some thirty-five boats that ~re
sending off' fish. Vessels come in and take them--four or five of them.
The majority of the boatmen sell to the vessels. Tim latest that I have
known blue-fish to be c~mght was the last of October; but those m'e
what we call *Am fat ones~ weighing from ten to fifteen pounds apiece.
~Ve don,'t catch marly of them, and those we w-t~nt ourselves. Most of
thenl are caught over at the island of Muskeget. [ think the blue-fish
spawn at the south. They are a warm-weather fish ; the least cold will
send them off into deep water.
Captain JOSIAH C. ])EASE. We calculate that the blue-fish spawn here
about the last of July and first of' August. I have seen them when I
think they were spawning on the sands. I have caught them a short
time l)elbre ihll of spawn, and then tbr a time afterward they would be
thin and weM:. They do not get much fat about them till the last of
August or first of September. They spawn on white~ sandy 1)ottom~
right out to the eastward of this island, toward Muskeget. I. have
seen them there in considerable muubers ibrmerly. All kiuds of iish
are scarcer now than they used to be. A few years ago we could get
any quantity of them.
Question. What has made them scarce ; has there been any disease
among them °~
Answer. ¥es~ sir. The disease is twin% I think. Fishing never killed
out the fish.
When I was a boy we could catch as many scup right off the wharves
as we wanted. I do not think there are as inuny fish caught with the
hook and line as tllere used to be. We would catch them if we could
get a chance.
It is only about twelve years since fish have been shipped in large
quantities. Beibre that the market was neai'er home~ and no fish
(taught with tim hook and line were shipped. Bass were so I)lenty
in those days that we could not get more than three or tbur cents a
pound ibr them; now they are worth ten or twelve cents. I recollect
seeing one man, when I was a boy, haul up three tho~sand, th'tt he
allowed to lie and rot. Our boats could then get one hundred in a day
quite frequently ; large bass, too.
Question. But bass are not caught in the pounds~ are they
Answer. They are a cunning fisl b and know enough not to go into
the pounds after they have been in one once.
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 39
I do not know where the striped bass spawn. I have never seen any
very young ; none two or three inches long.
I never saw a young sqncteagae.
I have seen plenty of young rock-bass not more than two inches long.
The stril)ed bass go up into the ponds and among the eel-grass, [
suppose.
Question. Don't you think the blue-fish have something to do with
making other fish scarce ?
Answer. No. There have always been blue-fish. For thirty years
they have been plenty.
Captain RUFITS F. PEASE. Blue-fish came in here betbre 1830. I
recollect of hearing the old iblks talk about bluefish. I caught them
before I went to sea, in 1824.
Captain GEo. COFFIN. I caught enough to load aboat in 1825. They
were so plenty, I caught them just as fast as I could haul them in.
Captain F]~A~C~S PEASE. I have he~rd my father speak of the large
blue-fish, weighing ibrty l)ounds, i think th,~t must have been before
the beginning of this eentnry. They were all gone long before my day.
The first that [ recollect were small fish. The large blue-fish are not as
active as the smaller ones. I think the l)lne-fish that are around in the
smnmer~ weighing five or six pounds, are the same as we catch now~
which are large and/'at.
Captain RUFUS F. PEASE. Blne-fish are growing plenty now away
down toward Now~ Scotia, and are growing less year by year here.
The mischief of tim pounds is, they keep the price down, and they can-not
sell their own fish. I think they injure every man ; I can see in the
last ten years a great change.
Question. Why are fish so dear at retail ?
Answer. That is all owing to the market-men~ who have a compact
among themseh'es that they will not sell below a certain price.
Captain FI~A~'C[S PEASE. It makes no difference with us whether
fish are high or low; they will not give us but about a cent a pound,
while at the s'une time they keep their agreement not to sell ibr less
than eight cents.
There were as many as twenty-five boats from the bluffs around here
this year, driving off the fish from the shoals. They are not fishing-boats;
but they come with a crowd of sail on, and they fl'ighten the
fish.
If fish were not caught any faster than they are taken with a hook
and line~ they would be plenty.
Captain JOSIAH C. PEASE. The pounds take all the breeding-fish
that come into the shores. I saw in New Bedford, tim first of May~
large s,:up, full of spawn, and rock-bass. They were taken in the
pounds~ and couhl not have been caught with lines; it was too early.
Captain R. F. PEASE. They had so many tautog taken at Wood's Hole
at one time that the net sunk and the fish died, and they had to turn
them on t.lm shore. They were chuck fnll of spawn ; large breeders in
tlmre, looking for a place to deposit their spawn.
Cal)tain JOSIAH C. PEASE. Some of the farmers will have a pound;
mid go to it in the morning~ and take out the fish and ship them, and then
go to work or their fa.rms. They do not fi)llow fishing ibr a living.
Captain R. F. PEASE. The law ought to be uniibrm. One reason
why the pounds were not stopped by the legislature of Massachusetts
was, theft the Provincetown people made a statement that they (.ould
not fit out their vessels with bait, mfless they had pounds to catch it for
them.
40 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.
Question. Could they ?
Answer. tIow did they do it before ? They had tile same facilities
then as now. They used to send to ~Nov~ Scotia for bait; now they
use only herring and menhaden for bait. Menhaden are getting scarce.
This hnrbor used to be full when I was a boy; but i~ is :~ rare thing
to find any here now, because they are caught up. They don~t catch
them at Saughkonet gocks, as they used to. If they keep on catching
them up as tbey have done, we shall have to send to Calitbrnia to get a
mess of fish. We have had bonito here this year, and there have been
more squeteague about this year than be/bre.
Captain FRANCIS PEASE. When I was "~ boy~ we used to catch sque-league
very plenty. You canner, go off here now and get fl'esh fish
enough for diuner and get back in time to cook it. You will soon have
to go to h-ew Bedford to get fresh fish. I used to go out at this time of
the year and catch half a barrel, in a short time, of big pond soup
eight inches long.
Captain R. F. PEASE. Round ~[uskeget we used to do well catching
the l{/rge blue-fish and bass, but now we cannot get any fish there. I
am down dead against any fishing except with hook ~nd line. A mau
who is rich can sweep the shore with nets, but a poor man, with his
boat, cannot get any fish. The big fish eat up the little ones !
Captain J. (~. PEASE. I think five hundred pounds is the highest
amount [ have ever caught this year in a day. Four years ago I caught
1,472 pounds in a day. I used to go three or ibur years ago a~Ld get
250~ 275, and 280 fish in a day, but now it is hard work to get a hun-dred.
They have been decreasing gradually every year for tour or five
years. Last year there was a great fall fl'om the year before. I know
there is nobody who goes over more ground for blue-fish than I do. I
caught the first blue-fish this year the 29th day of May. Sometimes I
get them as early as the 25th of May. We generally catch a few of the
first when we are fishint~" for codfish ~tt the bottom. We catch codfish
till the last of May. We do not see them at all on the top of the water
when they first come. VVe begin to see their whirls on the water about
the middle of June, If the weather is warm, they will be hexle till the
middle of October. I have caught them as late as the first of 5~ovem -
ber. I have caught blue-fish that weighed thirteen or fore'teen I)ounds.
]31ue-fish ldow are our main stay. If i could have my choice of the fish
to be pleuty~ I would choose sea-bass. Seup are too small, nnless they
are very plenty ; indeed~ you could not make any wages catching them.
I would like to have ~ law prohibiting the use of pounds and seines for
ten years. Is not that fair? They ht~ve had a. chance for ten 5ears,
and a few are monopolizing the whole fishing.
Question. "What fish would be matei'ially affected by seilfing besides
bass ?
Answer. As quick as frost comes, the bass go out into the rips~ and
we can (:arch them with hook ~md line. They tollow the small fish out
of the shallow water. The cold weather drives the little fish out~ and
tile 1)ass tbllow them. We never catch in the summer~ ill July and
August. Last year, one day~ I saw an immense number of blue-fish
down beyond Cape Pogue. It was quite calm, and I could not catch
one. There was ~ seine set there that afternoon~ and hauled ashore
about three hundred. That night a gill-net was set~ and next day you
couhl not see a fish. They were all fi~ightened away. That was some
time in June, I think.
Question. Would not they have gone off any way?
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 41
Answer. :No, sir ; you would see them month iu "tnd month out; if not
distnrbcd.
Question. What do bluefish eat ?
Answer. Th(~y will cat everything that is living. We have a great
mat~y lanuces that they eat. They take young scup a~ld squid. They
eat a good re'my eels, too, and anythii~g they can get hold or: [TiLe
general opinion was that bluefish do not or'ten eat eels.] The blue-fish
eats off ~he tail of the eel.
Cal)tain 1~. F. PEASE. YOU may go to work and dress 1,500 blue-fish,
and t'll bet yon won't find an eel in aJ~y of tlmm. There is a time when,
I think, they are spawning, when they will not bite at all, aml they have
not anything in them ; but we generally find them pretty hill. Eight
or nine years ago, any laboring man could go down to the wharf and get
as many scup as he wanted tbr breakfast~ aud then go to his day~'s work.
They were good-sized scup; but now, if we get any, they are l~ot fit. to
e~t. ~ourteen years ago, I could make more money catching blue-fish
at a cent and a quarter a pound than I can now for three cents. I could
sell them at three-fourths of a cent or a cent ~ pound, and make good
wages at that. The vessels that come here now in the first part of the
season offer two cents a pound.
" ~AI~'TUCKET~J uly 18, 1871.
Testimony taken at Kantucket, July 18~ 1871~ being made up of state-lnents
by several persons engaged in fishing either with lines or nets of
different kinds, Captain C. B. Gardner, Sylvalms Andrews, John G.
Orl)in ~ and Captain Winslow being the principal fishers with lines, aud
Mr. Snow, Gershom Phinney, \Villiam (3. Marden, and Mr. Chal)in using
nets, the last two using hooks and.lines also:
The testimony of those using hooks and lines only was substantially
as follows:
Boat-fishing is nothin~ now. Blue fsh are not more than half as
plenty as five years ago. They were not as plenty five years ago as
they were ten years ago. They grew less after the use of seines and
gill-nets began. That broke np the schools of fish that used to go
around the island two or three times a day. Forty years ago the blue-fish
were very small, about ten inches long. They were not here betbre
that. Year by year they became larger, and in about three years
obtained their full size. Up to this time blue-fish are scarcer on both
sides of the island than they were last year, though early iu the season
they were more plenty.
The average catch up to this time has been less this ye~lr than last ;
but more have been taken, because there have been more nets. Fifty
nets; probably, have been added this year, generally on the north side.
These are visited every morning. They are from thirty to fin'ty fathoms
long. They will gill a blue-fish that weighs two pounds. U1) to within
a few years you could go with a boat anywhere in this harbor and get
as mat~y blue.fish as you wanl~ed. ~Now they are driven out by the net's.
They used to have spawn in them, but they don't now.
Mr. SNow, who uses seines or gill-nets, said:
The 29th of May we caught the first blue-fish. We don't catch them
as early with the hook as in seines. They came here late this sea, son.
About a hundred a day is a good catch this season. They weigh about
six or seven pounds. In September we catch them weighing twelve to
4~ ltEI?ORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.
lifteen l)oumls, getting twelve out of a hmnlred of that size. That is
when they are passing back. \Ve have caught some in tile nets this
spring that weighed ten pounds. We can catch blue-fish steadily
throughout the, summer; generally get some every day while they
are here. When we get two tides a day we get more fish. They come
iu on the ltood, and we take them when they• are ~o., o•lu ~o,. out. We inw~-
riably catch them on tim ebb. lit was here explained that the nets are
set piu'allel to the shore.] The bait comes iu-shm'e nights, and, I pre.
same, they tollow it in. They feed on herring and such like. They will
eat all tlte soup they can get.
[The line-tishermen deified this statement, generally agreeing that
they never find any pieces of seup in the blne:fish.]
5;h'. SNow. I have seen hundreds and thousands of little seup in them.
They will pick up a erab~ and when they cannot get anything else they
will eat sand.squibs. I have tbnnd shell-fish in them, that they pick up
from the bottom. On the line-fishing grounds the blue-fish do not eat
seup, because they have spurs on them.
Ilt was generally agreed that they will eat small scrip, and that they
wouhl drive, away the seup, that nm for l)rote(.'tion into the eel-grass.]
Mr. ANI)I~EWS. ][ think a large one would not run away.
Mr. SNow. I have seen the largest st'up in them, and even blue-fish
in blue-fish. I don't think they waste any fish they catch.
317r. \V~NSLOW. Nine-tenths of the blue-fish have no senl> in them;
but most of them have menhaden in ~hem. There are no blue-fish here in
the winter. They come about tl~e 1st) of June. I think there are fewer
in the harbor this year than heretofore.
Mr. SNOW. We have probably two this year to one last year.
Mr. X~rINSLOXV. We do not catch so many with the hook.
NI'. SNOW. We get some every day, but not so plenty as tbr a time
' back.
Question. Itow do you explain that there are three times as many in
the seines and less caught with hooks?
Mr. W~;SL()W. Those caught in the seines are small.
Mr. SNow. We get as great a proi)ortion of large ones as we did last
year. I think blue-fish are more plenty in nets than last year.
Mr. A~D~WS. That is my explanation, too--because the nets lmve
destroyed the hook-fishing.
Mr. W~XSLOW. We used to get from two to three hundred blue-fish
in a day through the season.
Question. Have the seleet-men given permission to put down traps ?
Mr. M~c'z. They have not refused any.
Mr. SNow. The pounds did not do well last year, because they were
not rigged right. I never fished with a pound, and don't know any-thing
about them. Fishing with pounds is much more expensive than
with set. or gill nets. It would cost $6,000 to put down a pound at
Great Point. I do not tlfink there are more than twice as many gill or
dritt nets this year as last. There are abont fifty gill-nets out belonging
to the peoph~ of Nahtucket, and some fifteen or twenty to others, all on
tlm north side of the island. They are twenty-five to fifty ti~thoms long,
and from thirty to fifty meshes wide. The size of the mesh is from tour
and one-tburth to tbur and one-half inches, No. 15 or No. 16 thread.
We get the largest blue-fish in the fall. The biggest one I ever heard
of weighed twenty-five pounds. I have seen two fish that weighed tbrty
pounds, one weighing eighteen and the other twenty-two.
GERSKO3t FINNEY. I think blue-fish are more plenty this year than
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FISHERIES. 43
they were last; they are very numerous this year. I think tile large
fish are more plenty, as well as tile small.
Mr. IkNDRI:i~VS. We don't catch ally on tile north side with hooks.
Mr. 3[,~c~'. I went out with a party and got ibrty, a week ago. I
know that the fishermen generally say they get fewer on the north side.
Mr. SNOW. I think more fish would have been caught with the hook
and line if the price had been such as to suit the people.
~r. ~VINsLOW. I have been up six or seven times, and have aver-aged,
I think, two each time. I think we should have averaged more
than that two years ago; 1)erhal)S not last year.
Mr. PltlNNEY. I don't know where the blue-fish spawn ; we see their
young ones here. I have seen them alongside tile wharL about four
inches hmg, a little later than the middle of July. They wouhl catch
the little launees and drive them about. The first school that comes is
generally the largest.
){r. SNOW. I caught the first blue-fish about the 22d of May.
){r. P4{INI~EY said the 1st of June.
Mr. WILLIA.~I C. MAI'DE~ and N[r. CnaelN fish at Great Point. They
fish some with nets and some with hooks. Blue-fish are more plenty
than last year, at Great Point, by one-third. We were there last year.
fi'om April till about the middle of October, and we never got so many
oil the lines during the whole season as we have up to this time this
year, fishing with the same al)paratns.
Mr. ANDI~,EWS. Oil the south side we have not caught so many, up to
the present time, as last year.
Mr. PI~I>'NEY. I think they came rather earlier this year than last.
Mr. 3I~tI~DJaN. We go~ them at Great Point about the llth of June,
first.
Mr. SNOW. We are southwest of Great Point. They always come
earlier to the west, on the front side of the island, than eastw~trd. As
a rule there are larger fish outside. Sometimes they come in schools,
sorted by sizes, and sometimes all mixed up.
[All the gentlemen agreed that they could not tell anything definite
about the spawning of blue-fish. Some would spawn when they first.
came. Mr. Snow had caught them with spawn in them, the last of
July. Mr. Andrews had seen them with spawn in them as late as the
last of August.]
Mr. SNow thought seup more plenty this year than last, at Long IIill.
~I1". ANDREWS said the whole place where they were caught was not
larger than the room in which they were then sitting ; and that was the
only place where they can be caught, about a few rocks.
Mr. Mac¥. They are very particular about their ranges. When one
gets the range of them exactly they can be caught in plenty there. We
caught 150 there, the other day, one of which would weigh probably
two pounds. But most of them would weigh not more than half or
three-quarters of a pound. Last 5-ear it was ahnost impossible to get
seup. We paid five and six cents right along to get even small seup.
Mr. SNow. Last year, in September, we had "~ heavy gale, trod after
that, for three days, we had soup. I don't know where they came from.
Generally they were on the in-shore side of the net. I think they are
more plenty this year than last. Crow-fish, (black-bass,) generally so
ealled about here, are more plenty, aS well as tautog.
Mr. SNow had seen no young soup three or four inches long. He had
seen, that day aud the day betbr% some about an inch long.
Captain Bu~c~Ess, an old fisherman, in response to a question about
the use of nets, said: If it was expected that he shouhl say gill-nets
44 I~EPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES.
made fish Inore 1)lenty, such an answer could not be drawn fi'om him
very easily. Of the summer fish, the blue-fish and seup are the l)rinei-pal
to be relied upon. Very fe, w tautog are caught here. Blue-fish are
scarcer, as a unifbrm thing, on the nort.h side of the island than they
have been. I fish on the north side of the island, fl'om Great Point io
Muske~et.
~[r, PIIINNEY. I have seen more fish this year than in any two years
befbre.
Mr. C~{aPIN. There have been more than twice as many fish in the
bay this year as there were last.
~lr. PIIINNEY. I.think they swim very low this year.
Mr. SNow. I catch ~hem lower than usual. I think they are after the
bottom bait.
Mr. PIIINNE¥. VC'e fiud them with eels in thein, and eve~:y thing that
lives at the bottom.
Mr. ANDREWS. [ fish both ways. Twenty years ago we could catch
enough at the top.
Mr. SNow. Twenty years ago there were no nets belonging to Nan-tucker
people, but they came here fl'om Cape Cod and fished.
Question. Might we say that, upon the whole, the blue-fish are more
plenty this year than last; but that, in consequence of their swimming
lower than usual, they cannot be caught with hooks ?
Mr. PIIINNEY responded affirmatively, others not answering.
Mr. BURGESS. I should like to see some one go from Tuekernuek to
the Point and get ten fish a day ; whereas ten years ago you might get
a hundred. [ don't know the cause of the decrease; I think it is the
nets. I have seen acres and acres along Great Point, lint they would
not bite.
Mr. ANDREWS. ]~ think that is about the time' they are spawning. I
have seen them when they wouhl not take the hook anyhow, perhaps
for an hour, and then they would bite.
Mr. PKINNEY. ~re find plenty of spawn in the blue-fish this year;
but not so many as we did at first; about the 10th of June we/bund it
most plenty. We find now more males, generally, than females.
5It. BURC, ESS. The roe of the female is yellow ; that of the male is
white. I do not know where blue-fish sl)awn ; I never saw any of the
• eggs floating on the water. I think the femMes deposit their spawn,
and then the male deposits his on top of it. I am very much opposed
to nets of all ldnds; I think they are a general loss and disadvantage.
1Kr. SNow. I don't know wha~ the fish are going to bring this y