The Salmon Fishery of Penobscot Bay and River in 1895-96Smith, Hugh M. (Hugh McCormick)
Science
The Salmon Fishery of Penobscot Bay and River in 1895-96
Smith, Hugh M. (Hugh McCormick)
Atlantic salmon fisheries -- Maine
Several salmon have been taken on hooks off Frenchman Bay within a few
years. One 25-pound fish was caught on a cod trawl 3 miles off
Gouldsboro, in 20 fathoms of water, and another was taken southeast of
Mount Desert Island in 35 fathoms.
Some years ago, on May 22, one of the crew of the schooner _Telephone_,
of Orland, Me., while fishing for cod on German Bank, caught a 10-pound
salmon. German Bank lies about 50 miles southeast of Mount Desert
Island and has 65 to 100 fathoms of water.
Destruction of salmon by seals.
Seals are known to kill a great many salmon in Penobscot Bay and
the lower river. They enter and leave the weirs and traps without
difficulty and cause great annoyance to the fishermen. When a seal
enters a net, the fish are frightened and usually become meshed; the
seal may then devour them at its leisure. The initial bite usually
includes the salmon's head.
Fishermen in some places report a noticeable increase in seals in the
past few years, and a consequent increase in damage done to the salmon
fishery. The State pays a bounty of $1 each for seal scalps, which
serves to keep the seals somewhat in check, although the sagacity of
the animals makes it difficult to approach them with a rifle and to
secure them when shot. Within a few years some weir fishermen have been
obliged at times to patrol the waters in the vicinity of their nets, in
order to prevent depredations. In the Cape Rosier region, where some
salmon trap fishing is done, seals were very troublesome in the early
part of the season of 1896. Mr. George Ames, who set three traps in
1896 and took about 100 salmon, had knowledge of 13 other salmon that
were destroyed by seals while in his nets. Similar instances of
relatively large numbers of salmon killed by seals might be given. With
salmon worth 20 to 50 cents a pound the loss of 10 or 12 salmon by
seals, in a total catch of 75 or 100, is a matter of importance to the
fisherman.
Evidences of results of propagation.
The opinion is now practically unanimous among the salmon fishermen of
Penobscot River and Bay that the artificial hatching of salmon by the
U.S. Fish Commission is producing beneficial results. About the same
arguments in support of their opinions are presented by all, and these
accord well in the main with the observations of other persons who have
given this matter attention:
(1) The opportunities for natural reproduction are exceedingly limited,
owing to the obstructions to the passage of the fish to their spawning
grounds in the headwaters of the Penobscot basin.
(2) The salmon that are naturally hatched are, even under the most
favorable conditions prevailing at the present time, not numerous
enough to keep up the supply of market and brood fish, with the
fatalities incident to the long residence at sea and to the passage of
immature fish down from the spawning grounds to the sea.
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