Two other measures that have been more or less frequently proposed are
the provision of a closed season during certain months and the
restriction of the methods of taking mussels. While it is the purpose
of the present paper to discuss more especially the positive
suggestions that are offered, it is not out of place to give briefly
some of the reasons for exclusion of measures which may have been
suggested by friends of the industry with sincerity of purpose and
which are not upon their face devoid of merit. Always let it have the
first place in our minds that the one object in view is not to hamper
but to develop the mussel fishery.
_Closed season of months._--The aim in establishing a closed season for
the mussel fishery during a portion of the year is either to protect
the mussels from disturbance during a breeding season or else to
diminish the extent of the fishery by limiting its duration.
It might be very proper to protect the mussels during the active
breeding season, if such a season could be defined; but, as a matter of
fact, the various species of mussels in any particular stream have
different seasons of breeding. The mussel industry is based upon a
considerable number of species of economic mussels. There is a group
which has a short breeding term during the summer months. Such are the
species known commercially as "niggerhead," "pimple-back,"
"monkey-face," "maple-leaf," "blue-point," "three-ridge," etc. The
"washboard" seems to have an intermediate breeding term during the
early fall, though it may be that in some cases it carries its spawn
into the winter. Many of the more important species of mussels have a
long term of breeding; in the latter part of the summer and in the
early fall the eggs are deposited into brood pouches within the shell
of the female, and there, after they hatch and develop, they are
carried over the winter, to be liberated in the spring and early
summer.[A] Of this kind are the "mucket," "sand-shell," "pocketbook,"
"butterfly," and others.
[A] Possibly these mussels liberate glochidia to a limited extent
during the fall and winter; but the general statement is well founded.
In view of the variety of commercial mussel species and the diversity
of breeding seasons, it does not appear practicable to determine upon a
closed season that will accomplish its particular purpose. The Illinois
law prohibits the taking of mussels in any navigable water in that
State between the 1st day of October and the 1st day of April; but, as
illustrating how such a measure may apply in a particular case,
practically all of the mussels in the principal river of that
State--the Illinois River--are short term or summer breeders, spawning
some in June, July, and August, others in October and about that time.
Only a few carry the spawn, after its development, through the winter.
The principal objection to an enforced interruption of the fishery
during a period of months is that it deprives the mussel fishermen of
the right to earn a living by their profession during a portion of each
year. This objection has real weight, and should be overborne only by
decided advantages to be gained from a closed season.
_Restricting the methods of fishery._--The principal implements for
taking mussels are the crowfoot bar, the rake, the fork, the tongs or
scissors fork, the dip net, and the dredge. These several pieces of
apparatus are variously adapted to conditions of depth, rate of
current, and character of bottom, as well as to the aptitudes and
customs of the fishermen. Before a method should be prohibited it
should be known that it can be replaced by one of the more suitable
methods, or else that it is so positively injurious as to require its
elimination. The only implement of capture against which complaints are
generally made is the crowfoot hook, but this is the only method in
general use which is adapted for taking mussels in the deeper water,
and it is probably in more common use than any other method. Perhaps in
time improvements upon this hook will be adopted to lessen its
injuriousness, or other methods capable of replacing it will be better
known. In the light of present conditions it would work an unnecessary
hardship upon a very large number of fishermen to prevent its use,
especially when it appears that the protection of the mussels can be
accomplished by methods more equitable to all concerned.
Still other measures have sometimes been advanced looking to the
limitation of the number of shellers to be permitted to work within a
given territory or to the leasing of shelling rights. Since such
proposals have not yet been offered in connection with any properly
worked-out plan by which serious injustice would be avoided and the
interest of the public safeguarded they may be dismissed with the
remark that it is not simply the protection of mussels that is desired
but the protection of the mussels for human use without interference
with common human rights. The absence of inherent wrong in an idea does
not commend it if it carries within itself the seeds of its own defeat
by a method of application, or a want of method, that allows
opportunity for manifestly unjust and intolerable conditions to arise.
There remains to deal with the necessity for the two measures that are
advocated and to discuss the methods of application. This can be more
adequately done in distinct sections.