Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1892-10-26
POUND NETS.
They Are Very Costly, and Last
Only a Year.
Twenty of Them Supply New
York With Fish.

Twenty pound nets along the Jersey
shore supply New York city with
most of its fish in summer. To pay
for the plant, Washington Star cor.
respondent was informed, each net
must catch from 5000 to 10, 900 pounds
of wcaklish and other scaly game per
day. A pound net costs $4,000, and
it only lasts one year. Next spring
new one must be substituted for the
old, only the anchors and chains en-
ployed for fastcnings being useful for
another season. The net itself has
become rotten and the wooden poles
utilized for supports have been eaten
up by the bivalvc mollusks known as
the "tcredo." Sometimes two sets of
poles arc required in one summer.
In order to make the nets last so
long they are tarred all over twice
during the season, once in the spring
and again in midsummer. Attempts
have been made to preserve the poles,
which are expensive, by charging them
with mineral acids. Experiments
have been tried in this direction in
England, Holland, Belgium and else
where, but always without good re-
suits. Tho acids are injected into the
wood. They do keep off the tcrcdo to
some oxtent, but the process costs so
much money that it is cheaper to re-
new the poles. Besides it is apt to
taint the water, so that the fish is
driven away.
Each pound net extends out three
quarters of a mile into the ocean, ap-
proximately. The length varies some.
what with the depth of the water oil
shore. the pocket at the end into which
the fish are led requiring to be at a
depth of about forty feet The fish
find the net an obstacle while swim
ming along the coast in pursuit of the
small fry that swarm in the shadows,
and they follow it seaward until they
find themselves inclOsed in the pocket,
from which they cannot discover an
exit subsequently. There they may
be kept imprisoned for an indefinite
time, until there is a market demand
at profitable prices. One day last
year a single pound net off Asbury
Park captured 100, 900 weakiish, which
comprised an entire school. There
was scarcity of them in New York
and 10000 of the batch were shipped
TO the metropolis on ice by a tug.
They fetched a big sum of money,
but storm came up and 50 moved the
net that the remaining 80, 900 escaped.
Running pound net is very much
like gambling. Between the fuctua-
tions of the city market and the un-
certainty Of making catches the own
er never knows whether he is going
to come out ahead OH the speculation.
AT present it is believed that there are
too many such snares along the Jcr-
sey shore, the result being an over
supply, which makes prices lower.
The pound net fishermen are accused
of over fishing the waters TO the peril
of the industry in future, but the At
lantic is a pretty big ocean and it is
not likely to bc lshed out in this cen
tury. In early spring many shad are
caught in this manner as well as some
shccpshead and III the fall Spanish
mackerel come along.
Scabright is New York's great
source of supply for blucfsh. Every
morning at about daybreak 100 row.
boats go out from there and angle
with hook and line, each boat catching
from 100 to 1000 pounds at a trip and
returning by 9 Il. m. 1t would be
good thing for the other fishes of the
sea if the bluetish could all be wiped
ont, iuasmuch as every one of the lat.
ter destroys many times its own
weight Of useful food fishes every
day, biting them to pieces wantonly
as it Swims along The buctish is a
shark in all but the name.