Finally an eminently desirable feature of any legislation is that it shall be so simple, plain, and undebatable as to minimize the difficulty of enforcement. Coupled with this there must be not only an effective penalty but machinery of enforcement that will work simply and certainly.
The measures to be proposed will be considered in the light of these requirements, together with the basic conditions offered by the natural history and the conditions of life and reproduction of the mussels.
As appears from the remarks hitherto made, the restrictions which are immediately required for the preservation of the shell resources are--
(1) The imposition of size limits for the protection of young mussels.
(2) The adoption of a plan of rotation of closed regions, whereby the mussel beds may be given the best opportunity for propagation and growth.
We do not at this time advocate any other limitations, and it will be attempted to show that these are so simple to apply and so promising of effectual conservation that it is strongly advisable not to complicate the situation by a needless multiplicity of restrictions. These two measures will be fully discussed in subsequent sections of the paper.
MEASURES NOT SUITED TO EXISTING CONDITIONS.
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.