Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-05-18
THE POTOMAC FISHERIES.
More About their Decline and the
Cause Thereof.
ALEXANDRIA. Va.


More About their Decline and the
Cause Thereof.
ALEXANDRIA VA.
Editor Of tie Ereniag Stdr:--My sister
handed me an issue OF your paper, under date
OF May 1lth. containing an article in reference
to Potomac fisheries, and asked M il would
not write something concerning The subject
for your paper At first hesittted, but being
assured that you would Willingly lly before
the readers of your valuable ptDer my IN nb.e
contribution to others welfare. consented.
Both my grandfathers were fishermen, and my
father the oldest on the Potomac. nigh by the
waters of which was BORN and from the time
1 was old enough to handle an angling rod
unto this day have teen engaged in fishing
and curing fish. Although very young at the
time, well remember the season of 1870, when
so many fish were caught from the waters of
the POTOMAC that parties could not be found
who were willing to pay the city wharfage of
1S4 cents per nj on herring and 1874 cents per
T. on shad, and vessel loads were east again
into the ryer In 1881 my father and others
were ruined through the quantities caught
From ls40our fish have, with a few exceptional
years, shown a steady decrease; what the
causes were that produced the decrease prior
to the erection of our gas works do not know
OF my personal knowledge, but do know that
lew days after those managing those works
Lne sne refuse fr tar into the river that the
Point was covered with dead fish of
every kind common to our waters. The
if not all of them: and / remarked at
the time that continuation of that thing
would eventually destroy our spring fisheries
natey for Potomac fishermen and others li in-
tereSted in it, We have a city council that
serves the people without compensation and
like all other communities governed by cheap
men, argument awaited nothing, and the prac-
tice has been adhered to until the present time
TO the great injury of our fisheries. There is
scarcely log, stone, spawning ground or stick
that one can pick up on either side of the river
for miles below this city, that is not more or
less Desmeared with gas tar, and not a parti-
Gle OF spawn that touches it ever natures
Again, when / was a boy the fish Offal made
on the city fish wharf by cutting fish was cast
into the river, and around this wharf in sum-
mer could be caught millions of young shad
and herring, but in the course of time the les
sees of the wharf established the business of
selling the roe and other portions of the fish
cut off in cleaning them, for agricultural pur-
poses, and gradually the business grew so
great that the roe and Offal is scarcely out of
the fish before it is into wagons or OIL ears for
agricultural and other purposes: and i'm the
same proportion that this business has grown
the young fish which we used to see in such
numbers have gradually disappeared. Now it
IS rare instance where one can be caught
around the wharf A more mistaken idea does
not exist than that fish cannot be produced
from the spawn of dead fish that have not
been heated, or, in palmer words. spoiled.
FISH PRODUCED FROM THE SPAWN OF DEAD
FISH.
They were produced in the rain hogshead of
the late Richard c. Barton, from the cooks
washing the knife she was accustomed to use
in cleaning fish for the table i'm said hogShead
and notwithstanding the reputation of Mr.
from the fact that observations in earlier
years, had impressed upon my mind that the
seen in my boyhoOd around the city fab
wharf were the production of the spawn
that had been east into the river from the
wharf during the season. Nevertheless. to
demonstrate the matter beyond Iubt, on
the I'D OF May, perhaps the 3D. in 1911 put
some Shad roe taken from Shad was then
having cut, into hOgshead We had sunk i'm
front OF our fishing establishment for the pur-
pose OF obtaining clear water to make brine
OF. Alter some three weeks or month |
stopped watching the hOgShead and Concluded
that the spawn was too stale to produce, bit
sometime about the Sd of July had occasion
10 go round where the hOgSheid was and t.
my aStOnishment the spawn had disappeared
ana In the water around the hOgshead, which
the tide would sometimes overflow 1.-THE men
having sunk II too low, there were hundreds
of young shad, all seeming anxious 10 get into
the hOgshead. i watched them for some time
and think about the middle of September
IneY stopped playing around that hOgshead
and disappeared. This thoroughly satisfied
he that fish could be produced from tine
spawn of dead fish that were not spoiled, and
LA a'tI Ut put me immense decrease in the sup
ply oil nsh 10 the sale OF spawn for agricultural
purposes and the sailing and sale Of the same
Tor table use.
AS REGARDS THE GILL NETS
i can state that i am not Interested in any of
them,nOr in hauling seines either at the present
time. L do not therefore propose that nv note,
In reference to either of them shall be biased
ing OF spawn by drifting gill nets that is not
true, In the sense that many apply their argu-
ments against those nets. Fish spawn on logs,
stones. gravel, and something's sand. and over
these the gill nets drift without ma -eriaIly i'm
terferins with the spawn. Nevertheless they
do lncaieulable injury to the increase of fish
Dy O0strucilng the passage and forcing the fish
into the lower creeks at ebb tide, and on the
Hoods the salt water goes in and DESTROYS the
vitality OF the spawn as effectually as though
IT was sailed in fslerman's stand, while the
lead lines of hauling seines are ever DESTROY
ing it.
the Potomac, that might have been the case i'm
colonial times, not since the establishment
OF the national government. Maryland
masSnIs with equal consistency claim the
ways of commerce from which it
mainly derives the principal revenue of
government. Were much water to constitute
the high seas, there is more i'm the Chesapeake
Bay than in the Potomac and more i'm the At
lantlc than in the Chesapeake, and more i'm
The Pacific than in the Atlantic. and under
TINS state OF affairs We would be unable to de-
clde what really did constitute the high seas
The idea of MarylandS owning the channel
way OF the Potomac, or any other state own
Ing the channel ways Of rivers running through
or dividing them from some other is an alb
Surdlty. The highways OF commerce belong
to natiOnalities, and not the subordinate prov
lneeS thereof; and until the ma iOnal govern
ment shall put on a revenue cutter and stOD
men from fishing the channel way and states
the inlets. and authorities the letting Ont Of
gas tar into the river, and the Carrying Off of
spawn from the several fish wharyes located
On the river, the experience of the past teaches
us to know that all attempts at replenishment
VIII prove frultless. Very respectfully yours
FUTURE HOPES.
May Day In California.
The San Francisco B,aietin of the lst inst
ha.xr t,,1