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ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES

MADE TO THE

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, 1895.

PROVIDENCE:

E. L. FREEMAN & SON, STATE PRINTERS
1895.

REPORT

To the HonorahJe the General Assemhhj of the State of Rhode
Island and Providence Plantations, at its Januarij Session,
1895 :

The Commissioners of Inland Fislieries here^yitll present tlieir
annual report for the year 1894.

TROUT.

The Commissioners have purchased ten thousand (10,000) year-
ling trout, most of which have been distributed in the various
waters of the State. A few hundred will be retained for distribu-
tion early in the spring.

The trout fishing, the past, as for several seasons, has generally
been poor, though some good catches are reported. This, in part,
is due to the YQiy low state of the water in the streams, which in
some cases have dried to their bottom and thereby destrojdng the
fish, in j)art undoing what the Commissioners are trying to do, by
restocking. We could do more and to better advantage if our ap-
propriations were larger.

BLACK BASS.

The Commissioners have been enabled through the good offices
of Fred Mather to obtain a limited number of adult, large mouth
Black Bass, it being deemed desirable to introduce them into some
of our rivers which are now practically^ without good food fishes.

4 INLAND FISHERIES.

The small mouttied Black Bass are very pleutifnl in the ponds
and streams where they were placed by our predecessors and are
valued more highl}^ each year as a food fish.

SHAD.

Through the kindness of U. S. Commissioner 31. McDonald there
were placed in the head waters of Palmer River at Shad Factory
about two millions (2,000,000) Shad Fry. As has been before
stated by us, this is the only body of water unobstructed by dams
in our State. We have also applied for an apportionment of eggs
of the Land Locked Salmon.

BAY FISHING.

The fishing in the upper portions of the bay for Tautog and
Scup has been very poor, but Squiteague have been taken very
freely by hook and line. The season has been unfavorable to the
net fishing during the spring ; while some few did very well, most
of them got but poor returns for their outlay and efforts. In the
lower portions of the bay, as the season advanced, the Squiteague
and Menhaden became very plenty and the season's catches of
these fish were large. The Tautog or Black fish were quite plenty
all the season.

Blue-fish were plentj^ at Block Island, but not many in the bay.

Bass showed an increase of numbers over former years.

We are pleased to give in full the following letter from Capt.
N. B. Church. It gives a vevy clear idea of the menhaden fishery
as well as his observation of other fish along the coast.

New York, December 22, 1894,
J. M. K. SouTHWiCK, Esq.

Dear Sir: Your letter of the 19th is at hand and I am very sorry to say
that I am not prepared to give you a very full report of tlie general fisheries.
I will not attempt to -write about our loeal spring tisliing as you are probably

REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. 5

more familiar with it than I am. The Menhaden fishery for the whole coast has
been a fairly prosperous business.

Some of the Chesapeake fishermen started out in March with the idea of going
South to find them in their Southern quarters, but they had not gone far south
of Cape Hatteras when they found them very abundant; they fished on them and
followed them into Chesapeake Bay, where they had very good fishing for a
short time. They w^ere next seen on the Jersey coast, and in and around Sandy
Hook Bay where they had good fishing for a while, then the fish turned and
went into Chesapeake Bay where they had very heavy fishing all summer. This
body of fish was small in size and very poor in yield of oil. The body that
locates on our coast struck in in May, great bodies of them located in Long Island
Sound and in Narragansett and Buzzard's Bay, and also in Boston Bay, and the
bays and rivers of Maine. No great catches were made in INIaine or Boston Bay
owing to the fish being on the rocks and in strong tides in the latter place and
on account of their not showing but a short time each day in Maine.

Good catches were made in our bays and rivers until they w^ent out of them
early in August, as they usually do. The very blowy weather in October and
November was fatal to the fall fishing, which would have been good under
more favorable conditions of weather, as there were large bodies of fish seen all
along the coast.

Some of the Southern boats followed the Menhaden south of Hatteras, and
they told me that the bodies were so full of live sharks when they got there that
it was impossible to catch them, they would bite the seine so badl3\

Blue fish have been very abundant south of Moutauk all of the season, so much
so that half of the fishing smacks engaged in catching them, hauled up early in
the season, Squiteague have also been abundant as have been about all of the
local varieties of our coast, such as Summer Scup, Tautog and other varieties.
Striped Bass have been caught in larger quantities this summer than for several
years.

The Whiting catch is a wonder; they have been so abundant in Province town
Bay as to spoil the fishing for other varieties, the pounds being full of them
nearly all the time. I am sorry I cannot go into the matter of local fishing more
thoroughly, but I have been home so little this summer that I have had a very
poor idea of it.

Thanking you for your kind expressions,

I am, &c. ,

N. B. CHURCir.

G INLAND FISHERIES.

Account of Fish shipped from Newp)ort, R. J., hy Old Colony
Steamboat Co., in 1894.

Month. Lobsters. Fresh Fish. Salt Fish.

January 43 barrels. 08 barrels. barrels.

February 14 " 83 "

March 12 " 142 "

April 69 " 178 "

May 192 " 7,509 ''

June 270 " 6,089 "

July 844 " 1,240 "

August 476 " 184 "

September 392 " 587 "

October 31 '' 1,040 "

November 14 " 363 " 24

December .. 35 " 286 " 68

Total 2,392 17,769 92

Total for 1893. Lobsters, 1,399 barrels. Fish, 24,452 barrels.

Estimate of salt luater fishes caught in Rhode Island waters
from shore, ivest of Point Judith.

Porgies 2,315 barrels.

232

Sea Bass

Flounders 516

Flat Fish 216

Blue Fish 259

Weak Fish 53

Eels , 172

Smelts 187

Herring 1,500

Black 60

Mackerel 40

REPORT OP COMMISSIONERS. 7

Striped Bass ... 12 barrels.

Shad 8 "

Squid 2,0G0 "

Menhaden 30,000 "

Lobsters 20,G15 "

LOBSTERS.

The Chairman of the Commission would here report that in the
past year he has devoted much time and study to the propagation
of Lobsters.

As much of the work was necessarily experimental he has there-
fore given more attention to learning the best methods than to the
production of large apparent results. He has made some import-
ant experiments that will be of value in the future. While the
hatching of eggs in incubators has been attended with a fair
degree of success he is of the opinion that any way differing from
that of nature must be with greatly increased waste, both before
and after hatching.

He would, therefore, approve of retaining the egg lobsters until
hatched, and then either return them to the water, or exchange
them for other egg lobsters. Without a large outlay this must be
about all that can be accomplished. «

But the subject is one of great interest and requires the most
patient and thorough study before determining all the points to
be considered. In the successful propagation of the lobster, the
most important of all seems to us to be the rearing of them to an
age when they shall have passed the first and most precarious
stage of their existence. Should the State ever see fit to acquire
control of some arm of the sea, then it may be made possible to
retain the young lobsters until sufficiently developed to sink to
the bottom and escape the most hazardous period of their lives,
thereby much increasing the chances of ultimate maturity.

The complaint has been very general from fishermen and those

8 INLAND FISHERIES.

not fishermen that the law relating to the size of lobsters that may
be taken, has been continnallj^ violated ; to the detriment of the
honest fishermen and the lobsters are not allowed to mature.

We recommend that some one be designated to enforce this law
in the different towns where it is violated.

In the study of our fisheries it has often been suggested that
the mud dredged from our harbors and rivers and dropped in the
channels, was carried to all parts of the bay and in fishing grounds
outside and deposited in quantity sufficient to be seriously
detrimental to the fisheries. In this way some of the changes
that have been noted and complained of have been explained.

In order to get some reliable data on this subject we applied to
CaiDt. W. II. Bixby, who has charge of the U. S. Engineer's De-
partment and he very kindly gave us the following table, giving
tlie desired information relating to the work bj^ the general gov-
ernment.

REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS.

Table Showing the Amounts of Material— Mud, Gravel, Sand. Clay, Boulders and

Rock— Removed from Narraoansett Bay and its Tributaries

From 1807 to 1894, in Cubic Yards.

Year.

i

i
1

Providence River, Green
Jacket Shoal.

Pi'ovidence River.

>

S

1

1

1

s

i

1

1

1

I

1867

12,430

42,219

54,649

1868

1869

878

878

1870

18,201

27

18 201

1871 . ;

16,257

16,284

1872

1873

26,073

26,073
50 910

1874

30,529

3,668

8,244

4,145

93

634
21,359

11,530
43,303

58,928

11,213
13,574
[6,336

1875

7,248
31,347

73 003

1876

122,115
93

1877

1878

12,994

12 994

1879

72,314
327,559
484,125
391,295
502,304
217,724
625,073

2,33
190
12,190
23,232
33,723
27,806
7,658

..

72,547
327 740

1880

1881

496,315
636,339

1882

206,800
130,395

15,012

1883

666.4-il

1884

245,530

1885

62,673

20,185

56,353

60

695,404

1886

212,734
31,069
72,249

232 919

1887

206,431

111,372
199,580

11,450
4,382

210 243

1888

482 702

1889

1890

[55,051

147,520

96,034
140,673

87,776
75,489
351,963

39,661
34,846

338,200

1891

1,020
2,6.50
5,224

176,359

1892

72,213

125,104

287 743

1893

80 713

1894

32 975

fin 979

150.740

600 950

1

1

Total'^

1
570 524' 544 827

3,774,257

1 4^ qofi 34 Q87

«in ji-t

15,012

31,123

5 931 550

1 '

10 INLAND FISHERIES.

This shows the total amount removed as 5,931,550 cubic yards ;
besides this is a larger amount done by cities and by private par-
ties. That it has some effect seems certain wlien we consider that
two square miles, one yard deep or seventy-two (72) square miles,
one inch deep is thus dumped in our baj;^ and carried about by
the tides ; the extent of the effect none can tell, but it is doubtless
one of the waj^s that man has for disturbing what has been
erroneously called " balance of nature."

This term has been much used and as applied to the fisheries,
we consider a snare and a delusion. As used, it implies that
nature has established and would maintain^a certain equilibrium
in regard to animal life in the ocean, but for the acts of man ;
that man bears no part in the economy of nature, his acts are
therefore unnatural, artificial and that he alone is a disturbing
force.

Xow we believe with Sam Slick, that man has a good deal of
nature about him, and that he should be weighed and reckoned
with other forces of nature. That his is the most potent, none
can for a moment believe. Exactly what his relation is to other
forces as a destructive agent we cannot say, but upon that one
point depends the issue of the controversy over our fisheries.

We must deny that God or nature has any such laws as im^Dlied
in the phrase " balance of nature." Nature has no balance as im-
plied. When she goes on the rampage she upsets things generally
and does not stay, because to go farther would disturb the ' bal-
ance.' She has various ways of marshalling her forces and undoes
her own or man's Avork of centuries in a minute.

The whale, the shark, the seal, the blue-fish cannot be counted
out of the category of nature's forces. Does any one know of any
retaining power that stays their hungrj^ and destructive jaws
when tlieii prey is reduced to the limit of this " balance of nature?"
Does any convulsion of nature or any of its forces stop before up-
setting the " balance ?"

We cited the work of man in our bay in twenty-five (25) years ;

REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. 11

the natural forces of a freshet would do more in as many liours in
some rivers, but whether done by man or by natural causes the
result of a change in the bottom is destructive of small animal
and vegetable life and must be deleterious to the fishes.

J. M. K. SOUTHWICK,

Chairman.

State of Rhode Island in account icith Commissioners of Inland Fisheries:

1893. Dr.

Dec. 31 . To balance due Commissioners $98 95

1894.

Dec. 31. " paid for yearling trout 500 00

" expenses of Commissioners 114 63

" " transportation cans 18 00

$731 58

1894. Cr.

Feb. 27. By cash of State Treasurer $98 95

Dec. 31. *' balance due Commissioners , 632 63

$731 58

J. M. K. SOUTHWICK,
HENRY T. ROOT,
Wn.LIAM P. MORTON,
CHARLES W. WILLARD,
ADELBERT D. ROBERTS,

Commissioners of Inland Fisheries.

MBL WHOI LIBRARY