DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES,

'Pt
83,000, would be killed before spawning, and allowing 250 fish to a barrel, it means
the destruction of 20,000,000 adult fish before spawning, which if left alone another
month, would have produced over 500,000,000 young fry. I use these latter figures
not in an exact sense, but as a definite number below which the product would not
fall; and for the sake of illustrating the magnitude of the number, I may add that it
represents, in round numbers, all the fry of every species which have been produced in
the Dominion, by artificial propagation in the 20 years 1868—1887, at a total cost of
$404,000; thus clearly showing, how easily the unrestrained efforts of the fishermen
can destroy in a few weeks what cannot be replaced. There is moreover in a year
of plenty, like 1885, an excessive destruction of immature fish, because the price
being low, only the higher grades can be handled profitably. It is not only by
diminished catch that the injury to our mackerel fishery is manifest, but in places
which they once frequented none are now taken. The Bay of Fundy, the Bay
Chaleur and Gaspé Bay (Quebec) and Fox Island, N. S., are instances in point. These
places still retain all the natural advantages as breeding and feeding grounds which
they formerly possessed, and but for the purse seine, would be mackerel grounds
to-day.
We now know that the salmon and other anadromous fishes return annually to
the same spots for the reproduction of their species, and if the mackerel do not possess
this instinct of locality, by what chance or freak is it that they now pass by their
former haunts named above? The true answer is that the local schools belonging to
these plaees were annihilated, and it is my opinion that the continued unrestricted
use of the purse seine, means the destruction of our mackerel fishery within a few
years.
THE BAIT FISHERIES IN THEIR RELATION TO THE COD FISHERY.
The discussion of the bait fishery involves the working out of the whole problem
of the movements of the fishes, and for the final examination of this problem the data
at present available is insufficient. Much may however be deduced from the knowledge
we already have, and I shall endeavor, as briefly as possible, to discuss the present
condition of our bait fisheries, in their relation to that greatest of all commercial food
fishes, the cod; the catch of which is annually double in value that of any other of our
food fishes. Canada's most important fishing interest is carried on in boats. The
number of men employed in 1887 was, in vessels, 8,508 and in boats 45,568. The boat,
or as it is called, the shore fishery, is thus the one, on the success or failure of which
the welfare of this large number of our people depends.
It is a matter of common remark among our fishermen especially on the Atlantic
coast, that cod do not now come so close to the shore, as they formerly did; and the
fishing, which not many years ago, was carried on close to the shore in small boats,
has now to be pursued in large boats, at distances up to ten miles from land; and notwithstanding
the increase in the size of the boats, the fishery is now necessarily much
more affected by unfavorable meteorological conditions.
The cod is regarded as one of the most prolific of fish and also as one of the most
predatory and voracious, feeding on all smaller fishes and especially on the young of
these fish.
I do not consider that we have over fished, the littoral waters of Canada, because
the fishery has been for the most part hook and line work, and all that have been
taken would not appreciably affect the supply of a fish oI such fecundity as the cod;
hence we must seek some other agency to account for the withdrawal of the cod
from our shores and this we find,in the reduced supply and change in the movement,
of the bait fishes.
Not only do all anadromous fishes come in to the shores to ascend the streams
for the purpose of spawning, but nature has taught many others, such as the herring
and the mackerel, to come in to the shore and seek the sheltered spots where they are
undisturbed during the spawning season, and where under sholter of our indented
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