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HERE were twenty odd sail of French otter trawlers on Bank Quere. One of these otter trawlers dragged through all our trawls and cut and carried away on his otter boards about two-thirds of our nets, so that we had to put in to Sidney to refit. The following day I went aboard the Frenchy and complained about the destruction of our nets. He said he could not avoid our trawls and had a perfect right to fish his way of fishing on the high seas, even though it did destroy other people's property. On the next day he dragged through the balance of our gear, within

about seventy yards of our vessel, making a complete circle and I fired three rifle shots at him. One ball lodged in the woodwork on his bridge and then he went away and left us. But we had to put back in to Sidney and refit again, costing us $580 for new nets."

The cool old Yankee skipper, who made that report of a bloodless naval battle with France before the Fisheries Committee of Congress, is one of many thousands of deep-sea fishermen, sailing out of New England ports, who are up in arms against the ravages of French and English fishing steamers, which, having exhausted and ruined the fishing in

the North Sea and other European waters, are now beginning their work of devastation along the Grand Banks, the Georges Bank, and the other fishing beds, on which the United States and Canada must depend for their supply of cod, halibut, and the other deep-sea fishes that grace their tables.

Beam- or otter-trawling consists in dragging through the ocean, at a great depth, an enormous net-pocket, more than a hundred feet in width, kept open by metal-edged boards, called otterboards, and fitted with wide-spreading wings which irresistibly sweep into the pocket whatever comes in contact with them. Where the ordinary nets catch only fish of marketable size, the ottertrawl brings up everything, from tiny spawn to huge cod and flounders. The smaller fish are pitchforked back into the ocean, but it is a matter of record that ninety per cent of them are killed in the process. In this way the best fishing banks are quickly ruined, as have been those in the North Sea, which, under more humane and saner conditions, furnished plentiful supplies of fish for hundreds of years. It is the exhaustion of these fishing grounds which has thrown many English companies into bankruptcy and has driven others-both English and French-to send their ships across the Atlantic.

Meanwhile the relentless work of the otter-trawlers, in destroying the nets set by Yankee skippers, has driven many of the New England fishing fleet out of the business and induced others to fit their fishing vessels with gasoline power and send them around the Horn to the Pacific fisheries, where otter-trawling has not yet been introduced.

To stop the destruction of the fishing beds off the Grand Banks and, at the same time to protect their own fishermen from having their gear destroyed, the Canadian government is already moving. It has forbidden otter-trawlers to fish inside the three-mile international boundary and efforts are being made to forbid the landing of fish at her ports which are caught by otter-trawlers in international waters and to forbid the selling of coal to such vessels. The latter provision the Canadians think would stop the encroachment of foreign vessels, as none of them

could carry a sufficient supply of coal for a round-trip.

"The introduction of the otter trawl means a cheap food supply for the people," declare the steam trawl men.

"Until you have driven us from the field, formed a trust, and monopolized the fishing industry," reply the New England fishermen. "Then you will do as the other trusts have done, until your source of supply is exhausted within a few years, when you will be in as bad shape as ourselves, and the American people will be without an ocean fish supply."

Already many of these men have sold their vessels or sailed them around “The Horn" to engage in the Pacific coast fisheries, rather than remain and fight "the juggernaut." For many months, the marine news of the New England papers has contained items such as the following:

"Yesterday the schooner Madonna was towed up to this port [Boston] from Gloucester to load for Nova Scotia. It was not the first time that the schooner had been in Boston, for many times she has docked at T wharf to land big cargoes of fish.”

"The schooner George S. Parker, which, up to three weeks ago, sailed from Boston and Gloucester to the Georges Bank with a crew of twenty men, is now at Cape Breton, having been sold to Newfoundland parties."

"The schooner Dauntless, formerly one of the prides of the Essex fleet, also has been sold, and will hereafter be classed under the British registry. The crack schooner Oregon, of Gloucester, also has been turned over to Newfoundland parties."

Or one runs across such statements as the following, which was made by Captain N. C. Forbes of the schooner Athens. and Captain Herbert W. Nickerson of the schooner Victor and Ethan recently:

"On account of the beam or otter trawlers operating on this [New England] coast and seeing the damage to the fishing grounds and the destruction to the small fish, we fitted our vessels with gasoline engines and sent them around the Horn to the Pacific coast.”

The typical otter trawler costs about $50,000, and is of steel construction, with

a length of 125 feet, a beam of 22 feet, a draft of 13 feet, and a gross tonnage of about 240. The hold has a capacity of about 120,000 pounds of iced fish. The winch for the trawls is provided with two drums, carrying 7-inch cable, to which the trawls are attached.

The average ship's company consists of 19 men in all. The crew works in six-hour shifts, each man working six hours and resting the next six hours. The work is carried on night and day, arc lights being provided for the night work.

A trip usually takes four or five days, two of which are consumed in the passage to and from the fishing ground, in the case of those vessels under consideration, which dock in Boston and fish on Georges Bank. This leaves two to three days for the fishing.

When the bank is reached, the trawls are put out and dragged for about an hour and a half, at the rate of four miles an hour. Thus each trawl will cover a six-mile strip about 100 feet wide, or

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a total area of about 73 acres. After the haul, the bag is swung aboard, the "cod end" knot untied, and the fish pour on the deck. The crew then set to work sorting the fish with pitchforks. The non-marketable fish, such as skates, dogfish, sculpins, and monk-fish, together with all those edible fish which are too small to be marketable are shoveled overboard. Of the discarded fish which are shoveled overboard, it is conceded by even a biased authority, that 100 per cent of the small cod and haddock thus rejected are dead, or mortally wounded. A large portion of these are strangled

by dragging in the bag of the net, while those which survive this treatment meet with injury from the pitchforks.

Prosperity means insolvency for the otter trawler. On March 18th of this year, the following statement was made by James William William Baron

which is one of the chief trawler ports of England. Chapman has been editor of the Grimsby Daily Mail for the past nineteen years, and is well known in press circles in Great Britain and on the continent. He says:

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"From my own knowledge of the trawling industry I am able to say that no money would be subscribed locally for the formation of a new trawling company. There are upwards of 700 steam trawlers fishing out of Grimsby, and these, in the majority of cases, owned by companies who either pay no dividend at all, or, in the best of cases, only a small one. The pioneer company is the Grimsby and North Sea Steam Trawling Company, with a fleet of over 50 vessels. Up to fifteen years ago they paid a dividend of from 15 to 25 per cent, together with a bonus. Since then the shares have gradually depreciated in value, until, at the present time, a tenpound share, of which eight pounds has been paid up, is worth only ten shillings. For the past five years this company, which is practically managed, has not paid any dividend. Messrs. J. and G. Alward, Ltd., another local company, is now in liquidation. The Consolidated Steam Fishing Company, Ltd., the latest of the local companies, has been in the hands of a receiver for the past three or four years.

"In a few years, the incessant fishing depletes the breeding grounds, for, wherever steam trawlers fish, there is no interval to allow breeding; and the method of steam trawling is such that the bottom of the sea is ruthlessly swept, and thus enormous destruction is done to the breeding centers."

Foreign countries have legislated, and fishermen have sought for relief, but the remedies have been sought too late. The cry of "vested interests" has made members of Parliament in England stay the hand which was to approve the measure. Millions of pounds are invested in trawling companies abroad and adverse legislation is headed off.

We have in this country a great body of small fishermen who compete freely and cheerfully for their portion of the profits of the business. In fact the system of profit-sharing in vogue on the New England fishing schooners is almost too ideal to be believed, in this age of civilization. A certain deduction is made from the profits of the trip as the vessel's share, or the return on invested capital. Another allotment is made to the skipper, whose management of the vessel involves superior knowledge and a correspondingly greater compensation. The remainder is equally divided among the crew. From Eastport, Maine, to Nantucket, the fishermen put out in their schooners and battle with the icy blasts and the ocean billows. Each town has its particular type of boat. There is the Swampscott and Swampscott and Marblehead sailing dory; the Cape Cod cat boat, with its enormous rudder; the Portland power boat; the small sloop of Penobscott Bay and contiguous waters; and the big power dory, sailing from T wharf, Boston. One by one they have fallen off, since the days of the New Bedford whalers, and now the fishermen see the end of the fishing in the introduction of the steam trawler. What can they turn to next?

Some recommend the propagation of fish by the fish hatcheries to replace the number destroyed. Eight hundred thousand dollars yearly is the bill of the United States fish commission for the propagation of fish and their distribution in the waters of the United States, and yet, say the fishermen, one steam trawler can do more damage than can be repaired by a dozen fish hatcheries working night and day.

One of the final acts of the Congressional session preceding the present one, was the appropriation of $5,000 with which the Fish Commissioner was directed to make a thorough practical investigation of the subject of otter trawling and report his findings, with a recommendation, to Congress.