DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES,

The decrease in lobsters was general: the value for the whole Maritime Pro.
virices showing a deficit of over $350,000, The smelt fishery also appears to be
on the decline. Whitefish shows a large increase of a quarter of a million dollars
over the previous year. Hake and pollock show a decided improvement, while the
shortage of $112,000 in cod must be held to be slight, owing to the fact that this
staple fish yields nearly one-fourth of the whole catch of the fisheries of Canada.
REMARKS RELATING TO THE FISHERIES OF:
NOVA SCOTIA.
The total value of the fiheries in this Province falls short of last year's by
$62,753.26. This decline is pretty generally distributed over most of the principal
items, and would seem to indicate that the shortage in the catch is not due
to a scarcity of fish so much as to the unfavorable weather which prevailed during
most of the fishing season.
The salmon fishery was about the same as last year's, but mackerel does not
come to within one half the yield of 1887. Herring were plentiful and prices
fair. Shad and alewives appear to be on the increase, while a slight shortage is
noticeable in cod, undoubtedly due to stormy and unfavorable weather for boat
fishing. A slight decrease was experienced in the catch of lobsters, occasioned by
the curtailment of the fishing season, although the inspector states that, these
crustaceans were very plentiful on most of the coasts of Nova Scotia, and of a
good size.
The Island of Cape Breton fared no better than Nova Scotia proper; its fisheries
showing a decrease of $72,300, generally attributable to the lingering of ioe near
shore until an advanced period in the fishing season, absence of bait at proper
times and stormy waather whch destroyed large numbers of nets.
Herring fishing was on the whole remunerative, while mackerel utterly failed.
The Asaistant Inspector lays great stress on the damage occasioned to this flihery
by the use of rurse seines and he urgently recommends the utter' prohibition of
this mode of fishing.
In spite of adverse circumstances, cod fishing turned out pretty fair, while the
lobster fishery was unremunerative.
NEW BRUNSWICK.
The returns for this Province show a decrease of more than half a million
dollars from the catch of 1887, which was itself half a million less than that of 18S€.
This heavy falling off is made up almost entirely of items of salmon, smelt, and
lobsters.
The enormous drain hitherto put on these fisheries is showing its natural
results, and it would be impossible to shut one's eyes to the fact that, this is entirely
due to overfishing in the past. Still, with such facts staring us in the face, fisher-