The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-07-01

more elements of Importance than any
other, bids fair to be wiped out of exist
ence.
While the newspapers have recently
devoted columns upon columns to our
Behring Sea fisheries, and the question
of the condition of our seal fisheries has
been generally discussed, the probable
determination of a similar but far more
important industry, and one, too, that is
right under our Noses" so to speak, has
remained unnoticed.
refer, in general, to our economical
food fisheries, and in particular to the
catching of mackerel, lobster and cod
fish.
The annual catches of mackerel and
Holsters have for the past decade gradu-
ally and steadily decreased, and the size
and quantity of the fish have decreased
in the same ratio, and unless strong
measures are promptly adopted for the
protection of these fisheries, it is but a
matter of time, and short time, too,
when they will be but memory of the
past.
The wiping out of these industries is a
far more serious matter than many peo-
pie realize. 1t means that the laborer
will be deprived of a staple food article,
and the epicure will have to dispense
with many tempting dishes; it means
sending money for fish to foreign coun-
tries which should be circulated in the
United States; and it means, too, the
taking away from those brave and loyal
fellows, the American fishermen, their
occupations, which, when gone, will
leave them in practically helpless con-
dition.
The question is one that not only APP
peals to the public stomach and public
palate, but it touches the public pock-
et6ook, and the public feeling of patri-
otism.
The National catch of mackerel landed
in New England ports was 329, 943 bar
rels in 1885; it decreased to 79,9SS bar
rels in 1886; the catch was SO, 3S2 barrels
in 1887; only 1926 barrels were caught
in 1888; and the pitifully small number
of 1,91S barrels in 1889. The catch of
the past two years has been about the
same as that of 1880, while the probable
results of this years catch may be real
lied when it is stated that large pro-
portion of the owners and shippers of
mackeral schooners have abandoned the
business in disgust, and have fitted out
their vessels for cod-fshing on the
banks.
In comparison with the above figures,
it is significant fact that the vessels
sailing from the port at Gloucester
alone caught 100000 barrels of mackerel
in 1901.
The cause of this condition of affairs
is that,mackerel have not been caught,
merely caught-but they have been
slaughtered; and while the slaughter is
partially due to avaricious indifference
CHI clio -, &C
and shippers, the real cause is due to the
fact that the laws which are supposed to
protect fisheries are improperly framed
and indifferently enforced.
Less than generation ago mackerel
was caught with the hook and line, or
Zig" as it was called, and with the drag
net, and these two methods were amply
sufficient. Mackerel were caught in
great quantities, the fishermen made
enough money to support their families
comfortably, and mackerel were so
plenty and so cheap that they were eaten
even by the very poor. SO the mackerel
fisheries and the mackerel business flour
ished, and about score of years ago
the purse seine was introduced. 1t was
hailed with joy, and the ''seiners," as
the schooners were called, were built by
the hundreds to prosecute the new meth
cd of mackerel catching. Every one
thought the seine would revolutionize
Misunderstanding; and every one was
correct, for it has revolutionized the in
dustry far beyond their expectations. A
seine is an immense net, sometimes half
a mile long, and 100 feet deep. Weights
are attached to the lower edge and
corks to the upper, so that it is in a per-
pendicular position when in water, and
it is cast so quickly and in such man
ner as to surround school of mackerel
When this is done the purse line which
runs through metal rings at the bottom
is drawn tight and the mackerel are COM
petely trapped.
The purse seine was grand success in
one way, for immense catches of mack
eIel were made. The fishermen earned
more money than ever before, the sein-
ers paid large dividends on their cost.
and the high and low and rich and poor
bought fresh mackerel at ridiculously
low prices. So matters run along. and
there came change. The fishermen
had not anticipated that unfailing law of
supply Uersus demand affecting prices
which is so thoroughly realized to-day
by the coal barons. Vessels sailed to
port with holds full and decks covered
with fine fresh mackerel, only to find the
market so glutted that the fish could not
be sold at any price, and they had to be
taken outside the harbor and thrown
overheard. Yet the murderous purse
sein was not cast aside, and seining was
as vigorously and mercilessly prosecuted
as before. At one cast of the sein
crew would frequently catch more mack
erel than there was room in their vessel
for, and the largest and best would be
selected, and the others, many of them
females in spawn, would be thrown away
in dead or dying condition.
Mackerel were caught in shoal water,
whittier they had resorted to spawn or
for food; they were caught in the
spawning season, and at one east of the
seine hundreds of thousands of embyro
mackerel were destroyed; and the
schools were chased by the seining fleets
for hundreds of miles along the coast,
till the fish were caught or the schools
were broken up or separated by fright.
More than this. The fishermen, in their
senseless greed, as the mackerel began to
decrease in size, caught quantities of
barrels of them no bigger than a brook
trout. They were brought to market;
but as no one would buy them they fol-
lowed their predecessors of previous
years to the dumping grounds.
so matters continued to the present
time, the mackerel, although growing
sCarcer and smaller year by year, still be-
ing slaughtered by the same relentless
greed as when they were plenty, till now