The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-09-08
ABOLISH FISH POUNDS.
A General and Emphatic
Protest Against the
Murderous Traps.
NEW LEGISLATION ASKED FOR.
Measures to Stop the Ruin Of the
Flsheries-Petitious to Be
Circulated.
NEW LEGISLATION ASKED FOR.

Each week reveals q stronger interest
in the movement to abolish pound nets
from the coast of New Jersey. 1t is a
popular movement not oaly on the shores,
but back among the hills as well, and
every man who handles Il rod or line will
exert his influence to have a law passed
to prohibit the use Of these wholesale fish
Strengthening devices. Then there are the
hordes of men who get their living by
catering to anglers in the summer sea
son-the hotelkeepers. bait catchers,
beatmen ana keepers of fishing resorts.
All are arrayed against the staked out
nets and enthusiastic for refoyin. At
Perth Amooy last week a subscription
was started for the purpose of hiring Il
tug 10 plow through the nets between
Sanday Hook aud Barnesat bay. This aet
of riot was with great difficulty discour-
aged by a few of the cooler heads among
the residents, and the project was re-
linquished. 4 tug was rnu through sew
eral of the pounds in 1888. Il although
every effort was made BY the owners to
learn who iuStigated and carried out the
work of destruction. they never found
out. Now the people along Staten Island
sound are bent upou having che law
RN1oS0 W. ShAo PONEAcs aAO
hundreds dependent upon the visits of
city anglers to- the sound aud RaritaL
bay, and for several We RS The fishing has
been SO Door that the boa owners have
gone heavily into deet, aud they attribute
all their misfortunes to the pounds. Mr..
Jonn Collins of Newark, who spends
his m on the sound shore,
says that the natives there are wrought
up to a high pitch abort the pounds.
aud will go TO almost any eX-
IRENE to get rid OF Them He said that
$50 could nave been collected IN gu hour
for the tug project. and that there was
plenty of money there to further the OBJ
ject in the Legislature. AT Seabright the
fishermen and their friends, the store ana
hotel keepers, are greatly ineensed against
the touuds and it is a wonder that q vio-
lent demonstration has not been made
against them. Fisherman Van Brunt,
who has many friends in Newark, said
last weak that no candidate could get a
nomiAatiop for the Legislature in Mon
mouth or Ocean counties without first
~piedgtng himself TO light for Il bill to
make it unlawful TO fish with eaund nets.
Wholesale SLAUGHTER.
The question has been asked:-"How
have the pounds hurt the weakh5hing?@
The answer is simple. The fish wheu
heavy with spawn il the spring run close
ashore to enter the bays aud estu4ries.
Thousands upon thousands are trapped
in the pounds aud get no chance to de-
posit their spawn. AS a consequence, the
fish become searceT year after year. aud
il is quite naturslt to blame the pound nets.
1t is argued, On the other haad, that the
pounds do not cap ure one in 4 hundred
of the weakish which come North in the
spring, and that natural causes not
easily defined are to blame fer The scarcity
of these fish. The fact remains, however,
that the fish have almost deserted their
old haunts, Barne2at Bay. for instance.
was a famous place for wsakfish, and it
was no trick 10 catch 200 fish iii a day
there. NopNsix or eight fish are censid-
cred a good catch. There are eighty or
more sailboats on the bay, and they: are
owned by men whose Whole d~epeadalce
for a living In sunmer is upon the
anglers who's go there from the city Tor the
weakhshing. This sumaler not one
tenth of these men hava had engage
ments upon four days in the week, aud
many of them have gone wha1s weeks
without a party. Theif price-S4 a day
is low eompaIel with the charges
of the boatmen nearer New York,
and, as a rule. they are
sober, hard working and pa~instaking men.
They do not talk IAuan. bat they do a
powerful lot of thinkIng, and Just now
they are thinking that they would rot and
C nsume every pound net along the coast.
The Barnegat et pit ms Q r 'sstlv advocate
a stringent law again t al fixed n s a d
would like to have selues iuelu led, but
they see the folly OF attempting to pass
SUCH Il SweeninR measure. Que of than,
Howard Pla t. said to the writer last
week; Bring, or send. me a petition
and ] will sa ! from one end IF the bay 60
the OF Ter with it aud send it hack to you
ed in veiy llAs Wltn The names of men
who want to break up the pouAa net fish
lhA."
A PROPOSED ACT.
Something In this form has been sug-
gested. as the necessary legisiation:
An Act for the Pot ction of Fl 1.
Ssc;i3a /. That her a t r it shall not be law
FIJI for any person or prisons to pit, place OF
keep in any Of the Mates of this State, eithtr
wing net heart net, CT fykt, " any tap or
device set or hxei n the water for the capture
of fish.
with any form of net which is stationary or
fixed in position.
Section g.. That any. person or persons who
shall off Ri against he provisions of th s act
shall. upon eonV csioa thereof before any JUS
TIC Of the Peace, eth er in the county in which
sah offence is &C paiitted, or in which the
offender resides or may he found, be punished
by rmprisonmt n in tive toaniy Jail of the county
in which the convection is he d. for the term of
tn Fly days, or by a fns Of one hui dred dollars
and costs for each and every offence.
AN EARNEST APPEAL
The petition TO the Legislature will set
forth the views of the anglers, hotel
keepers and boat-owaers in concise forul,
and will be an earnest appeal from 30. 600
voters for relief from tbs evil winch e2-
lists along the coast and in some of our
harbors. l. was said last week that the
Delaware shore could be denended upou
to support any measure which would
abate OF abolish the pound net nuisance.
Matter Browe of Newark said that
AFTER the sever blow last week the pound