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The object ofa close time varies greatly accord? ng to circumstances, and the criticism often urged against legal enuotments which specify certain seasons or periods as times during which the taking ofpartionlar species of fish is prohibited, are frequently misdirected and mistaken. Thus it is often said of some fishery regulation, embody- ing a close time, that it does not cover the whole period of spawning and that many fish are found, before and after the limits of the period, in a ripb or spawning condition. The critics in snch case base their remarks upon the supposition that a close time of necessity aims to cover the period daring which the fi-«h spawn — the fish that is to say contemplated by the regulation. But such is not at all the sole object of a close time or close season. Again, it is said that in some cases the period of prohibition antedates or precedes the spawning time, while in other cases it protects the fish after spawning. In other words the close time is tuo early, or it IS too late. Fishery authorities in framing regulations defining close times for various kinds of fishes often have had very difi'erent aims in view, Indeed, at least a dozen wholly diverse objects have been aimed at in existing laws upon this subject in the Dominion, and a comparison of the laws in other countries defining close times would increase the number to over a score. It is rarely, however, that a close season is enforced so unjustifiable and f';tile as that which was passed by a local legislature in the United States, according to whose enactment no whitefish could bo captured in Lake Erie during the month of June by any fisherman in that State. The main reason for this law, which it was proposed to rigorously enforce, being that no fisherman could ever catch any lake whitefish in paying quantities at that time of the year. Further reasons were that the weather being hot the few fish, that might be taken, would not keep in good condition for the market, and the fishermen lost money because their nets became foul and rotted away during the height of summer. In the State referred to there was no protective close time in November when the whitefish could be captured crowded together on the spawning grounds in immense schools. The sole object of a close season for whitefish in that case was to meet the desire uf the fis^hing firms and the fishermen for a prohibition to be enforced daring a part of the year when they would not feel it. Some years ago a largo number of lobster fishermen in the Maritime Provinces urged that a close season for lobsters be enforced all along the const at the end of June, because they had lo go to cod, haddock, and mackerel fishing, and could not go on any longer with lobster trap- ping. They desired that no other fishermen should be permitted to fish ^or lobsters, when another more important fishery demanded their own attention. Td '1 sach views,on the matter of a prohibited period for fishing operations, the protection of the fish is left entirely out of account. There can he no doubt that the main object of clo>^e seasons in the majority of cases, has been the preservation from destruction of the breeding fish at the most momentous period, viz: when just about to deposit or incubate their eggs. If this object can be acoomplished it is the most enective measure possible for the per- petuation of the fish supply. The destruction of the breeding fish, at the very time they are engaged in spawning, is the surest step to the extermination of the future supply. Tet this destruction has in past times been almost universal and those engaged in fishing fo" a living, those to whom a continued supply is of chief importance, are often the most impatient of restrictive laws, and frequently IZXTl MARINE AND FISHEh'IEb'. 88 VICTORIA, A. 1900 oomplain that the law Btops them just when the fish are ranning or Bohooling in easily aocesaible areas, and when therefore the greatest hauls can be made. The fiieherj officer is not untrequently taunted with this remark 'if you kill a female fish six months before spawning, you just destroy as many eggs &er »e have no direct connection with health or sanitary regulations, yet the purposes of the latter regulations are often indirectly aided and aooomplisbed by the former. Fi^h in an unseasonable, emaciated and degenerate uondition cannot be good food. The Pacific Salmon which have mounted many bandreds of mihs. are ill-conditioned, somi-putrid and wholly unfit to be eaten, yet they would be largely consumed, and many factories would not hesitate to can them, did noi; the law (by close time regulations) prevent it. In remote districts, Indians and white men too, are said to use them for food and outbreaks of disease may be often traced to this cause. Oyster regulations have bad a similar object largely in view, and have prohibited the taking and sale of 'sick' or spatting oysters as much on grounds of health, rightly or wrongly, as for protection purposes. Close seasons as a rule cover periods when fish may not only be taken more numerously (as 'hey are then schooling) but more easily (&% the females are more heavy with spawn ;) but they are also intended to protect the weakly emaciated spent fish after spawning, as well as the vigorous 'full' fish before spawning. It is well known that shad on descending from their bieedini/ grounds up river, are little more than skin and bone, yet worthless and emaciated though they are, the fishermen strain every nerve to capture thom. A Shad close time should cover the descending fish as well as protect the ascending schools. The same reason may be urged for a long close season for salmon. It prevents the capture of black slink salmon and unsightly kelts. It no doubt enables the young fish, the smolts, to descend to the sea undisturbed. There is every reason to prevent a river or lake from being disturbed all through the year by fishing operations, and the fish harassed and driven about by long lines of nets. The Canadian regulations for salmon, etc., have worked untold benefit in pre- venting the continuous disturbance of the fishing grounds from January to Decem- ber. Had it been permitted, the fish would no doubt forsake such waters, never to return. Special close times, covering several years in some oases, have been devised to restore depleted fisheries. Thus in 18'J2 a close time for three years for striped sea bass was enforced in New Branswick. The beneficial result was most marked, and the fish which had been almost exterminated increased — more rapidly than either the authorities or the fishermen could have rer.3onably anticipated. All fisheries are not so readily restored, and a long period of prohibition in the St. John Siver, in New Branswick, appears to have been ineffectual to restore the depleted and destroyed sturgeon fishery there. The same difilculty in restoration, by a lengthy close time, has been observed in lobster fisheries, when these have been once depleted. It has been possible, in the case of some fisheries, to so arrange the annual close time, that the fish about to spawn are protected from capture before the actual spawning period. The smelt, for instance, do not spawn as a rule for some weeks after the present close time begins, but as the netting season draws to its end a vast num- ber of smelts are found to be swollen with eggs that are rapidly approaching the ripe stage. It is no doubt due to this antedated close time that the smelt still abound in vast schools at the.mouth of the Miramiobi, the Riohibucto, the Kesti- gouche and other rivers, although as many as 4,000 or 5,000 tons have been captured daring the short netting season of a few weeks. A close season to achieve fully its object should, if possible, protect the first as well as the last spawners. It Ixxvlii MARINE AND FISHERIES. 08 VICTORI^ A. 1900 bbould do this in order to Iceep ap the early rans, which in most marketable fish nre by far the most valuable. It should also prevent the last spawners from being captured, as the late fish are always in a poor, flabby and unseasonable condition for food. The capture of early runs has in the case of salmon rivers had the effect of wholly destroying them and of rendering such rivers late. Late rivers imply a large proportion of degenerate, unsightly and undesirable fish. Prohibitions again have been enacted to prevent the disturbance of one kind of fish by fishing opera- tions carried on for other kinds of fish. Thus nets br whiteflsh, pickerel or dore, and for coarse fish such as catfish, pike and suckers were prohibited in the Bay of Qointe for many years, not to protect the fish just mentioned, but on other accounts. Thus in summer Buoh nets would take Hpawning bass, or, at any rate, would disturb them while spawning, and later would interfere with the bass anglers who desired these fine blacK bass grounds to be free from nets at the time. The fishermen them- selves were not strongly averse to this summer net prohibition for three reasons — (a) they were employed by the anglers as boatmen and in other ways ; (b) their nets readily rotted and became useless if used in hot weather ; (c) catfish and other coarse kinds are soft and in poor condition in summer and fall, whereas in the cold winter months they are most valuable and in prime condition for market. Yery various, indeed, are the grounds for enacting close seasons and the reasons for enforcing them, but the ultimate object is the promotion and improvement of the fish supply, and conferring thereby substantial benefit on the fishermen and the public. It is from the fishermen and from the public, therefore, that the authorities ought to look for every aid in the laudable task of fish protection. That such aid is not always to be relied upon is a matter of common knowledge. Indeed, it is too often the case that the parties likely to derive most benefit permanently from a brief protective prohibition do lot realise that such benefit must inevitably accrue to them. The published views of a well known Ohio fisherman may bo given as an example. He said : — ' Regarding this matter of a clone season I have certainly some convic- tions. The difficulty along our part of the lino of Luke Erie, which we have to encounter, is that the time that you can take these fishes best for the market is in the month of November, and in no other month to speak of can yon take any whitefiuh in the head of Lake Erie. It is true that the head of Lake Erie is the natural spawning ground probably for the whitefieh, but if you do not take them in the fall with pound-nets and other appliances in the head of Lake Erie, they must then take them with gill-nets. Now there is no use of making a close season to shut out this fishing article of food. You take the fishing of Ohio, and you take the month of November out of the fishing month, and you might just as well hang up your nets entirely on the A merican side, that is, on the headwaters. The month of November is the only time that it is possible to catch the fish, that is fish for commerce.' A prominent member of a fishing firm in Michigan said : ' I think a close season to commence the first of September and end the first of January, would be what we ought to have. I think the State ought to take the money that is expended in hatching fish, and pay the fishermen to stop fishing during the close season ; that is, pay the fishermen for their time while they are lying still in the fall, during the fall fishing season.' Snob an expression of opinion is proof of the unwillingness of the fishing community to realise the purpose and meaning of close seasons for fish. Public opinion does not appear to have reached the necessary state of enlightenment. The California Fishery Commissionets when they reported regarding salmon protection on the depleted Saoremento Biver in 1882, said : — ' The Commission has much satisfaction in being able to report that there now appears to exist a more harmonious feeling upon the necesity of preserving the fish in our rivers. During the year last past, from all the information we have, there has been exhibited, on tho part of the conductors of the canning business, a fair and earnest desire to enforoe the close seeson, and a commendable realization of the importance of preserving the fish from wasteful destruction, and allowing THE OBJECT OF A CLOSE TIME FO/i FISH, Ixxvix SESSIONAL PAPER No. 11a them to reach their breeding-grounds in saiBoient numbers. But still there has been a great deal of surreptitious violation of the laws by itinerant fishermen, whose depredations can ouly be prevented by the people in the immediate neighborhood by assisting in enforcing the law ; for it may here, we think, be pertinently remarked, that the ' American citizen,' whilst exhibiting the highest order of natural ability for the i mking of laws, seems to almost entirely overlook the fact that it is also his privilogo and duty, individually, to aid in the enforcement of them.' This lack of support on the part of the public in the enforcement of just and necessary fishery laws is nut confined to the United States ; but the view, at one time prevalent, that the product of tho wutcrH is common property which any one may secure how, when, and where he likes, is slowly giving way to one more enlightened and having more regard to the public interest.