Enemies to Fish
Dublin Core
Title
Enemies to Fish
Subject
Environment, Fish, Pollution, Preservation
Creator
F.
Source
http://addison.vt.edu/record=b1775388~S1
Publisher
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Date
October 1876
Contributor
Zak Risha, Natalie Richoux
Rights
Permission to publish images from The Gray Jacket must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.
Format
Text
Language
English
Type
Article
Identifier
LD5655.V8 L4, ser.1, v.2, no.3 (October 1876), p.6
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
ENEMIES TO FISH.
It is a well recognized fact that man is everywhere breaking down and retarding the works of nature; partly through ignorance but oftener through personal cupidity. I shall attempt to give a partial illustration of how the fishing interest is injured through these causes.
The most common injury to fish is the artificial obstructions placed across rivers, such as dams, &c. Nearly all of our superior fish find their best spawning grounds in the small branches and rivulets at the head of the stream, and when they would attempt to reach these breeding grounds they find-numerous insurmountable barriers, not only those which nature in her rugged work has built, but also those which man in his greed of gain has placed there. Here is where the cupidity of the people so largely plays a part.—Whilst at a small cost they might erect suitable fish ladders across the dams, thereby allowing the fish to pass above; they prefer themselves to catch the fish, debarring the people from a like privilege. Neither do they seem to understand that they are killing animals out of season, which are totally unfit for the table. Our colonial forefathers seemed to understand this subject pretty well, for we find that in 1761 in Legislature assembled, they compelled a certain gentleman, Allen Howard by name, to move not only his mill dam, but his mill house, which obstructed the Rockfish river. A little wholesome legislation of that kind to-day would tend to decrease the public debt some several thousand dollars. Nor does the evil lie entirely in the obstruction caused by the dams. Many of the mills are saw mills, and nearly all of them throw their saw-dust into the creeks and rivers. Insoluble matter in water, such as saw-dust, is much worse to fish than cinders and dust is to mankind.—While we may very easily free ourselves of such petty annoyances, they have no resource whatever; consequently, inflamation [sic] of the gills (lungs) takes place and death finally ensues. Again, the mills are very often for the purpose of manufacturing paper, dye stuffs, illuminating gas, &c., and the refuse in nearly all cases containing large quantities of poisonous matter, is thrown into the streams. Here is an ignorance or carelessness amounting to crime. To save the small expense of removing the matter, it is thrown into the streams to poison thousands of fish. A well informed gentleman writing in the Live Stock Journal states that at one point on the Connecticut, four thousand pounds, or twenty tons of fish poison are thrown into the river six days in the week. Moreover, a Philadelphia gentleman writing to Forrest and Stream, complains that fish caught from the Schuylkill are unfit for the table, being so thoroughly impregnated with gastar and petrolium. It is useless to state that those who cause this wholesale and unnecessary destruction of public property should be restrained by legislation.
The next cause of decrease to be considered is the excessive seining above and below tide. On this subject it is difficult to write enough without consuming too much space.—Everywhere in Virginia is excessive seining going on. One party seining night and day for fear some stray fish may be captured by a rival party. Though there is a law in Virginia against seining for black bass, the Lynchburg News of the 19th instant contained the following : "If our friends ups the river don't stop catching black bass with nets and seins we will tell something about their performances which will end in severe punishment. They are violating the law, and the sooner it is stopped the better." I agree with the editor of the above, that "the sooner it is stopped the better." Much better for the public good. Yet I can not help but think that heis as guilty as the parties who committed the violation. It would be well if they could be dealt with by such as the Oxondaga sportsman's club of Syracuse which last week captured from Oneida lake five seins, weighing in the aggregate over a ton and valued at $800. As a further example af affairs, the Captain of Matilda, running on the Rappahan nock between Fredericksburg and Baltimore, informed me this spring, that it was almost impossible to prevent the fishermen from obstructing the channel with seins and nets. There banks after banks of seins are preventatives to fish ascending to the spawning beds, and it is a miracle how one ever ascends twenty miles above the bay. This is the case not only on this river, but on nearly all other rivers in Virginia. Fishing shore, which formerly rented for thousands of dollars, have been so depleted by over fishing that they are now easily obtained for a few hundred. Probably the gillnets and draw seins are as injurious as any, for it is alleged that they both destroy the spawn as fast as it is deposited. On the other hand the greatest damage is ascribed to the pound and stake nets which almost barricade the rivers near the mouths.
The next point to be considered is the gathering and selling of the ova of fish. This illegitimate branch of commerce has increased to an alarming extent. In some States the roe of the herring is shipped by the barrels, and the commercial journals of the country have begun some time since to quote it as regular articles of trade. Not only are they consumed in our own country but they are shipped abroad. Not long ago the fish commissioners of California had arrested and punished several Chinese for the worse than misdemeanor of collecting and shipping salmon eggs to China. These gentlemen recognized the fact that 95 per cent. of the said eggs, under proper treatment, might have become mature fish.
As to the use of fish-berries, lime, giant powder and the such like articles, it is worse than criminal. Fred Mather, in giving answer to a gentleman making inquiries as to these substances, says; "It is a mean thing to use, and fish so killed are not fit to eat. * * *" What would you think of a man who poisoned deer? The use of such means for the murdering (I will not say the capture) can not be too strongly condemned. The Santa Rosa Democrat of January 7th, 1876 states that after a single discharge of giant powder in the Russian river, twenty-seven large salmon and many other large fish of different varieties were found dead on the surface of the water. In addition it names several other large streams, formerly well stocked with fish, now totally deplete through the use of this infernal agency.
All of these and many other contrivances have been the cause of the destruction of our fish. As our intelligent commissioners so aptly remarked in their report : "We have reached that point that both self-interest and reason combine to admonish us if we would continue to enjoy the providential bounties of streams and fields, we must restrain that propensity, we must subdue that instinct, we must practice forbearance, we must, during the breeding season, protect fish and game from all attacks, and at all times from wanton and wholesale destruction. This may be effected by the voluntary individual or collective resolve of the whole community; in the absence of unanimous concurrence, by a stringent law to restrain the vicious, and aid those who would save something from the general and impending wreck. For the present, enough. Yours truly,
"F."
It is a well recognized fact that man is everywhere breaking down and retarding the works of nature; partly through ignorance but oftener through personal cupidity. I shall attempt to give a partial illustration of how the fishing interest is injured through these causes.
The most common injury to fish is the artificial obstructions placed across rivers, such as dams, &c. Nearly all of our superior fish find their best spawning grounds in the small branches and rivulets at the head of the stream, and when they would attempt to reach these breeding grounds they find-numerous insurmountable barriers, not only those which nature in her rugged work has built, but also those which man in his greed of gain has placed there. Here is where the cupidity of the people so largely plays a part.—Whilst at a small cost they might erect suitable fish ladders across the dams, thereby allowing the fish to pass above; they prefer themselves to catch the fish, debarring the people from a like privilege. Neither do they seem to understand that they are killing animals out of season, which are totally unfit for the table. Our colonial forefathers seemed to understand this subject pretty well, for we find that in 1761 in Legislature assembled, they compelled a certain gentleman, Allen Howard by name, to move not only his mill dam, but his mill house, which obstructed the Rockfish river. A little wholesome legislation of that kind to-day would tend to decrease the public debt some several thousand dollars. Nor does the evil lie entirely in the obstruction caused by the dams. Many of the mills are saw mills, and nearly all of them throw their saw-dust into the creeks and rivers. Insoluble matter in water, such as saw-dust, is much worse to fish than cinders and dust is to mankind.—While we may very easily free ourselves of such petty annoyances, they have no resource whatever; consequently, inflamation [sic] of the gills (lungs) takes place and death finally ensues. Again, the mills are very often for the purpose of manufacturing paper, dye stuffs, illuminating gas, &c., and the refuse in nearly all cases containing large quantities of poisonous matter, is thrown into the streams. Here is an ignorance or carelessness amounting to crime. To save the small expense of removing the matter, it is thrown into the streams to poison thousands of fish. A well informed gentleman writing in the Live Stock Journal states that at one point on the Connecticut, four thousand pounds, or twenty tons of fish poison are thrown into the river six days in the week. Moreover, a Philadelphia gentleman writing to Forrest and Stream, complains that fish caught from the Schuylkill are unfit for the table, being so thoroughly impregnated with gastar and petrolium. It is useless to state that those who cause this wholesale and unnecessary destruction of public property should be restrained by legislation.
The next cause of decrease to be considered is the excessive seining above and below tide. On this subject it is difficult to write enough without consuming too much space.—Everywhere in Virginia is excessive seining going on. One party seining night and day for fear some stray fish may be captured by a rival party. Though there is a law in Virginia against seining for black bass, the Lynchburg News of the 19th instant contained the following : "If our friends ups the river don't stop catching black bass with nets and seins we will tell something about their performances which will end in severe punishment. They are violating the law, and the sooner it is stopped the better." I agree with the editor of the above, that "the sooner it is stopped the better." Much better for the public good. Yet I can not help but think that heis as guilty as the parties who committed the violation. It would be well if they could be dealt with by such as the Oxondaga sportsman's club of Syracuse which last week captured from Oneida lake five seins, weighing in the aggregate over a ton and valued at $800. As a further example af affairs, the Captain of Matilda, running on the Rappahan nock between Fredericksburg and Baltimore, informed me this spring, that it was almost impossible to prevent the fishermen from obstructing the channel with seins and nets. There banks after banks of seins are preventatives to fish ascending to the spawning beds, and it is a miracle how one ever ascends twenty miles above the bay. This is the case not only on this river, but on nearly all other rivers in Virginia. Fishing shore, which formerly rented for thousands of dollars, have been so depleted by over fishing that they are now easily obtained for a few hundred. Probably the gillnets and draw seins are as injurious as any, for it is alleged that they both destroy the spawn as fast as it is deposited. On the other hand the greatest damage is ascribed to the pound and stake nets which almost barricade the rivers near the mouths.
The next point to be considered is the gathering and selling of the ova of fish. This illegitimate branch of commerce has increased to an alarming extent. In some States the roe of the herring is shipped by the barrels, and the commercial journals of the country have begun some time since to quote it as regular articles of trade. Not only are they consumed in our own country but they are shipped abroad. Not long ago the fish commissioners of California had arrested and punished several Chinese for the worse than misdemeanor of collecting and shipping salmon eggs to China. These gentlemen recognized the fact that 95 per cent. of the said eggs, under proper treatment, might have become mature fish.
As to the use of fish-berries, lime, giant powder and the such like articles, it is worse than criminal. Fred Mather, in giving answer to a gentleman making inquiries as to these substances, says; "It is a mean thing to use, and fish so killed are not fit to eat. * * *" What would you think of a man who poisoned deer? The use of such means for the murdering (I will not say the capture) can not be too strongly condemned. The Santa Rosa Democrat of January 7th, 1876 states that after a single discharge of giant powder in the Russian river, twenty-seven large salmon and many other large fish of different varieties were found dead on the surface of the water. In addition it names several other large streams, formerly well stocked with fish, now totally deplete through the use of this infernal agency.
All of these and many other contrivances have been the cause of the destruction of our fish. As our intelligent commissioners so aptly remarked in their report : "We have reached that point that both self-interest and reason combine to admonish us if we would continue to enjoy the providential bounties of streams and fields, we must restrain that propensity, we must subdue that instinct, we must practice forbearance, we must, during the breeding season, protect fish and game from all attacks, and at all times from wanton and wholesale destruction. This may be effected by the voluntary individual or collective resolve of the whole community; in the absence of unanimous concurrence, by a stringent law to restrain the vicious, and aid those who would save something from the general and impending wreck. For the present, enough. Yours truly,
"F."