DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES,

93
APPENDIX No. 3.
NEW BRUNSWICK.
ANNUAL REPORT ON THE FISHERIES OF NEW BRUNSWICK FOR TIlE
YEAR 1888, BY ML W. H. YENNING, INSPECTOR.
SAINT JoHN, 31st December, 1888.
Hon. CHARLES H. TUPPER,
Minister of Marine and Fisheries,
Ottawa.
Sia,—d have the honor to submit a rejort on the Fisheries of New Brunswick
for the year 1888, with condensed reports from the local officers. The returns
show a decrease in the aggregate catch of more than half a million dollars from the
catch of last year, which was half a miliiQn less than that of 1886. The causes of
this steady decrease I have pointed out for the last fifteen years they are over.fishing
and insufficient protection. If these causes are allowed to exist, no other result
is possible but a continued and accelerated decline in this great industry. You will
be told by some ingenious theorists that fish are so prolific they cannot be exterminated;
that the ocean is vast and man cannot exhaust it; that some occult causes
we do not understand govern the supply; that the movements of fish are erratic,
pelagic, and unaccountable; that seasons of plenty are followed by others of scarcity;
that after years cf absence from our waters they will return in greatly increased
numbers, and many specious, but utterly baseless theories. In the face of
platitudes like these, I put the facts I have faithfully recorded for the last twenty
years, and these show that all our fisheries are growing worse instead of better; that
the supply is steadily diminishing, never increasing. With these facts in view,
facts which the fish themselves corroborate, I am compelled to look with distrust on
all fanciful theories and ingenious manipulation of assumed figures which are put
forward to explain them, and I rest firm in the belief that science teaches—if a cause
is removed, the effect will disappear. In this belief I respectfully appeal to the facts
recorded in all my past reports, and submit those contained in the present.
SALMON.
The returns show a falling off from the catch of last year of 131,157 pounds,
and a steady decrease since 1b74, the year that artificial batching was adopted, in
the hope of keeping up the supply of this fish. In that year by the natural mode
of increase, without any artificial aid, the fishery yielded 3,214,182 pounds. This
year, with greatly improved appliances, more nets and more men fishing, the catch
is 1,224,340 pounds—a decrease of nearly 2,000,000 pounds, after fourteen years
artificial batching, to help the fish keep up the struggle against excessive fishing.
BASS.
There is a small increase in the catch of this fish which comes entirely from
the County of King's. In all the northern counties, where this fish was formerly
abundant, Gloucester, Northumberland and Kent, the stealy decrease continues,
caused by past over•fishing and the great destruction of young bass in smelt nets.