....according to this 1917 town meeting report. plus we needed to purchase a pass for the privilege of fishing even back then.
Fisheries
The shores of Swansea have abounded in shell-fish,
though at present, having been overworked there is scarcity.
The tidal-rivers, which make up into the Town used to afford
good fishing also; but of late years, traps have taken the
migratory fish before they get to the mouths of the rivers.
However, *'the fishing-privilege" is still sold at auction, with
little or no competition, at the annual March meeting.
As has been mentioned in another connection, there was
a period, at the close of the war of 1812, when fisheries became
**more attractive and lucrative than farming," in particular
to the Gardners of Gardner's Neck, now known as South
Swansea. The war of 1812 having interfered with whaling
interests, the manufacture of oil from menhaden was made
profitable also. And later there was quite a general demand
for dressed and salted menhaden which were shipped to the
Southern markets and to the West Indies.
It is probable that the Indians taught the first white
settlers to use fish in the hills of corn and other crops as
fertilizer; and it became a common practice with the Swansea
farmers. But later, between 1880, and 1890, fish-fertilizers,
as by-products of the menhaden oil industry, became impor-
tant in this town, at the works of Wm. J. Brightman & Co.,
on Cole's River, at Touisset, where *'the fishworks" became
a scientific manufactory. Fish scraps from the oil-works at
Tiverton, potash from New York, acid phosphates from the
Rumford Chemical works, and bones from Hargraves of Fall
River were compounded according to formula, to meet the
demands of different kinds of soils and crops. C. M. O'Brien
was the superintendent of the business, and from fifty to
sixty, or even more, men were in the employ of the Company,
varying at different seasons of the year.
that's all it had about fisheries but here is the link if you want to read it.
http://archive.org/stream/historyofs...0wrig_djvu.txt
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