The Salmon Fishery of Penobscot Bay and River in 1895-96 | Page 7

I.
Mayo, a correspondent at the islands, reports that in June, 1895,
Colonel Hadlock took a 17-pound salmon in a weir, and on May 5 of
the same year Mr. Mayo caught one weighing 19 pounds. None had
been taken, however, in 1896 up to September 1.
[Footnote 3: See paper entitled "Notes on the capture of Atlantic
salmon at sea and in the coast waters of the Eastern States," Bull.
U.S.F.C. 1894.]

Salmon caught with hook off Maine coast.
Instances are multiplying of the taking of salmon at sea on trawl lines
on the New England coast. The salmon are usually taken during the
time when the fish are running in the rivers, but occasionally one has
been caught in midwinter. The following data relate to fish that
probably belonged to the Penobscot school.
On June 19, 1896 a Gloucester fishing vessel brought into Rockland a
10-pound salmon that had been caught on a cod trawl 20 miles

southeast of Matinicus. The fish was sent home to Gloucester by the
captain of the vessel, through Mr. Charles E. Weeks, a Rockland
fish-dealer.
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.
(3) The remarkable run in May and June, 1896, of fish of
comparatively small size that had apparently just reached maturity and
the relative scarcity of large fish that had evidently been in the river
during one or two previous seasons seemed to show a tendency toward
the depletion of the run of old fish and the substitution of a run of
young, artificially hatched fish.
(4) A feature of the salmon supply in recent years, on which the
fishermen nearly all lay considerable stress, is that the runs in April and
July, which in former years were often quite important and
remunerative, have of late