The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-03-16
'fI
WAN7ON WASTE OF Fish
Pound Nets Working Ruin
All Along the Coast Of
New Jersey.
CRUEL AND USELESS WORK
The Sea Food Supply in Danger of
Exhaustion--Stop the Butch
cry at Once.

Leonard Hubt, writing in Forest and
Stream. denounces the pound net fisher
les thus
Apropos of the fishing season I wish to
protest against the merciless slaughter of
our good fishes on the New Jersey coast
by the pound fishermen. That every va
rIety Of fish is being rapidly decimated
there can be no question. and unless a
halt is called in the near future the ltvell-
hood of thousands of honest toilers and
the delightful pastime of the salt water
angler will be a remembrance only. 1t
is a matter OF public surprise that our
commissioners of fsheriesdo not acquaint
themselves with the senseless havoc
wrought.
Within the past five years the number
Of pounds have increased from nineteen
to 1913. WhaG the exact number of pounds
which were put down last year aggregate
i have been unable to learn, but 1t is safe
to say twelve, which make the entire
number, to be entirely conservative, 40
OF these monster death traps guarding
every inlet and tideway of our coast,
scooping In without reserve all that
comes within reach. Beginning with the
early runs of the shad, this pernicions sys-
uOA4 10 ooI ~ hA6Ac VIVA
day and Sunday alike, during the
entire season. until the last fish has left
our waters. II
AS the fish approach the shore to
spawn, their natural runway is at low
water back of the outer bar, at high
water inside the bar and near the shore.
The great net known as the fence Is
stretched from the bar shoreward and
the pocket just back; SO no matter what
stage of tide the fish move there is no
escape, small and large alike are held.
Were these nets arranged as gill nets or
SO that that marketable size fish only
could be taken, the aspect of the case
would be materially different; but the
aforementioned pocket being made with
small meshes, no matter how small the
fish may be, he is kept captive. And right
here comes the most damnable part of
the whole affair. AS is natural with
animated creation everywhere, the weak
must succumb to the strong, and when
great masses of fish are packed in the
pocket the small Il consequently weak
ones are literally smothered To death, SO
that at every lift of the net tons of dead
fish are unceremoniouSly dumped into
the sea.
TREMENDOUS WASTE.
A little figuring will soon prove to
those who have not considered the sub
ject a slight idea OF the tremendous waste
carried on. Say of the 40 pounds, each
max es one lift per day during the fishing
season and casts over only 1000 pounds,
we have as a result 1900, 900 pounds of
the young Of u finest food fishes Grim
inally destroyed. That the above figures
are entirely conservative and away with
in bounds can be easily verified by any
one who will take the trouble TO investi-
gate a little; n that these figures would
approximate nearly three times the above
I am confident, could the exact truth be
learned. l have seen as high as 10000
pounds of weak fish massed in one net at
Il single lift. IA fsr-
This enormous mass OF fish is worse
char wasted; it destroys their productive
ness in addition, for nearly all kinds of
fish, as is well known TO every student of
the 1nny tribe, spawn at an early age.
And were they even sold as fertilizer,
some consideration might be granted,
but such a course would lend to open the
eyes of the public, a circumstance which
it is desirable should not occur. Again,
at the season of the year when drum do
not sell well, these scaly beauties, instead
of being humanely liberated, are merci-
lessly stabbed to death in the net and al
lowed to drift with the tide until they
are finally beached, when they bacome q
public nuisance. One morning last
August 1 counted NO fewer than sixteen
drum, ranging in weight from fifteen to
forty pounds a floating iu Shark
River Inlet at one tide, each one bearing
the same fatal stab, aud each one repre-
senting just so much waste IN point of de-
population and valuable food.
Again, the thousands of boat fisher
men who have heretofore made good in
comes and provided we'll and plentifully
for their families find their vocation gone:
attest the hundreds of boats lying idle
upon our beach, the men either seeking
new employment or sitting Respondent in
e--- 49, -
ing upon each heretofore happy home.
That the present system of pound-fshing
is detrimental to our best interests can
not be successfully cOntradicted. Viewed
in any light it is pernicious and works
financial good to the few against mis-
fortune to the masses. The argument
that the inhabitants of the great deep are
so numerous that depletion is impossible
will not stand trial.
SEA BASS GROWING SCARCE.
That our sea bass are growing scarcer
each year is a matter of common COM
ment. The bass begin moving shore
ward about May 10 for the purpose of
spawning. naturally seeking the channels
of the rivers and bays as feeding grounds
during the period, and as all streams are
now guarded by pounds their chances of
success are small indeed. Examination
of all early caught bass will show them
to be full of ripe spawn. Consequently
natures great OBJECT or reproduction is
thwarted.
Abundance Of fish should mean cheap
fish for the people, but this is not the
case. The carriers get as good or better
prices than than they did when they de-
pended on the boat fishermen for their
supply. What can not be sold at estau-
lished prices are thrown away rather
than to have the prices lowered, and SO
again the people suffer an imposition.
Barnegat Bay has suffered, perhaps,
more keenly than any other point. That
lovely body of water has been the de-
light of thousands of anglers and the sup
port of hundreds of families, but each
year it has grown less productive, until
last year it ceased to exist so far as fish
and fishing were concerned, and all this
was due to the existence Of pounds and
other Illicit nets that guard its every APP
proach from the sea. The great body of
men who have, hitherto earned a COM
Portable competence with their boats have
grown disheartened at thoughts of the
uture.
f So much from an economic view! and
now from the anglers standpoint. There
ia not, n hotel on the whole stretch of our