The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-02-24
POUND NET PIRATES
They Want No Law to Regu-
late Their Nefarious
Slaughter Of Fish.
STATE COMMISSIONS ATTITUDE
Efforts to Check Devastation =
What D~isinterested Wit
nesses Say.
STATE COMMISSIONS ATTITUDE

oefN
a hearing on Tuesday at the State House
to all who had anything to say for OF
against present and proposed laws. The
pound net pirates, says the Newark
Sunday Call having more at stake
than n other class, were watchful
For years these grasping men nave been
alert to oppose any legislation which
threatened to abate one jot the waste
iul methods which they nave been pur-
suing. Money, legal talent and political
influence have been brought to bear to
defeat any effort to abridge the privileges
which they have enjoyed. The most
specious lying has invariably character
lied the arguments brought to bear by
the owners of pound nets and the men
whom they have employed to meet any
efforts at new legislation. 1t is a PEE
culiar phase of the matter tina the
have always endeavored to prove that
they have been steadily losing money
and are merely hopeful that another sea-
son will enable them to recoup their
losses and retire from the business. They
pervert facts to show that they are
working at a constant loss, and that in
spite of the fact that they do not get a
fair price for the fish they catch, they
do not in any way interfere with the
income of the poor hand-line or seine
fishermen. They will cheerfully spend
three or four thousand dollars a year to
convince skeptics that the usine is
done at a loss. They put down steel
piles and mount their nets with chains,
causing serious obstruction to naviga-
ton, and still insist that frequent storms
destroy all of the profit accruing from
their enterprise.
1t was proposed by the Fish and Game
Commissioners to do something to stop
the excuses of the pound net hogs and
they promptly came to the front to pre-
vent any measures which might inter-
fere with the freedom which they have
been enjoying. The scheme of the Com
missioners was to charge pound net men
S100 per year license n to compel them
to abstain from fishing between Satur-
day and Monday by opening the pockets
of their grab-aH c~ontrivances. Further
more a restriction in regard to the size
Of mesh in the fences or leaders and in
the pockets, was to be Incorporated in
ures. They said that they could not af-
ford to pay the license fee; tina bad
weather would prevent them from
that a big mesh would cause more de-
struction of fish thar the present nets.
Disintefested witnesses have shown re-
peatedly that the fine neshes in the lead
ers which extend from the shores out to
the traps, have gilled and destroyed mill
Ions Of pounds of young fish every year.
Inc little fish running. in the edge of
have become ~entangled in the meshes
and have remained there until decayed
and beaten to fragments. The present
pound net let's nothing go. 1t scoops
in -mossbunkers, founders. weakfsh.
snappers> and larger bluefish and all
kinds Of u~nmarketabie fish known by the
lifted daily the. marketable fish are
1nrown into the boats, together with the
MA, and the asserting goes on later.
at the pound side. In a wealth.
er Q n of fish die, in the pockets of the
pound and are thrown aside to float
At times tons of good fish may crowd
zach other to death in the murderous
pockets. and then the nearby farmers
or in absence of a purchaser a compost
pits is dug, in the sand and the fish are
ov Wien until til a purchaser nmn;ssIo1 can be fognd;
~pound-net pirates what they would con-
sent to in regard to a change in the law,
their spokesman said: we don't want
don't want to be regulated" They plead
poverty; but it is well known all along
the coast that the owners of the pound
nets are among the wealthiest business
men in their respective communities.
Furniture dealers like Citizens. and gro-
GERS, s~aloonkeepers, hotel %proprietors and
pound nets. 1t is better thar mining
stock. theatres or popular loan, and
perhaps the only other enterprises which
nents are the chattel mortgage, loaning
concerns which some of them are inter-
e ,seeds in. They do not want these enter
be Just let alone" Burglars, bunco
men,. green-goods men, counterfeiters,
fraudulent building and loan men, and,
which. is in any way questionable will
undoubtedly sympathize with these
pound-net men, who would really prefer
any laws which might in any way inter
fere with their business. The fact of
the matter IS. however, that p%ound-net-
Of The citizens of New Jersey. The fish
sent to market are frequently unfit for
feed, having been starved in the traps
which would make half 9 cent difference
in the price. Citizens of Asbury Park
tried last season and the year before toll
in New York, and began a retail business
by shipping fish to various cities. The
result was, no doubt, profitable. but, in
to those sold upon the fish stands and
IN the markets. Scared and emaciated
fish from the crowded pounds were sold
by the piece for a few cents each. They
were not, under any circumstances, equal
the fish killed and shipped to market
on ice as fast as AIKEN.
Other measures eanvassed at the pub-
lie meeting on Thursday. did not meet
with much opposition. The act to stop
sale of baby Holsters in this State is
a praiseworthy one and will probably
pass. There was a small fight against
the proposed provision to regulate net
ting in the tidewater rivers and bays
between the 18th of May and the 1st Of
September. but that will probably go
through. too. Newark marketmen asked
for an extension of the time for selling
game after the Close of the season SO
that they might have the benefit of the
holiday sale, and they will probably gain
this concession.
LAST NIGHTS FIRES.
A small fire. caused nv a 1ar,n ovpfo.