22 



BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



fish products of American waters fifty years ago were procurable, and compared with 

 accurate statistics of the same waters today, the discrepancy would be startling. 



That this alarming condition of our fishery resources has not been permitted to 

 escape the attention of some of our more thoughtful people is evidenced by the fact 

 that every State and Territory having any such resources has enacted laws for their 

 protection and preservation, and twenty-one of them have one or more hatchery 

 stations for the purpose of providing, by artificial means, young fish for the restocking 

 of the depleted streams. These well-meant endeavors to arrest further diminution 

 have, unfortunately, been only partially successful. This failure has been largely 

 disappointing, for great results were expected from the carefully framed and very 

 stringent statutes, as well as from the distribution of millions of young fish annually 

 from the State hatcheries and from the national hatcheries under the control of the 

 U. S. Fish Commission. Those hatcheries, national and State, have, under competent 

 supervision faithfully and effectively carried on the work of artificial propagation, and 

 their products have been judiciously used in restocking. 



An idea of the extent of their operations will be gleaned from the following sta- 

 tistics of the propagating and distributing operations of the hatcheries of the State 

 of Pennsylvania: 



Species. 



Shad 



Brook trout 



Salmon 



Lake trout 



Landlocked salmon 



Black bass 



Carp 



Grass bass 



Wkitelish 



Wall-eyed pike 



California trout 



Total 



1890. 



16,303.000 



2, 694, 900 



94, 000 



168, 000 



49,0(1(1 



840 

 4,525 



1891. 



10. 100,001) 



13, 545, 000 



508. 600 



8, 457, 000 

 2, 508, 000 



196. 500 



170, 400 



3,895 



5, 679 



1, 325 



11, 77o', 000 



40, 600, 000 



523, 500 



1892. 



9, 000, 000 



3, 200, 000 



300, 000 



175, 000 



6,000 



6,000 



2.000 



30, 000, 000 



65, 000, 000 



522, 000 



43,407,865 64.236.299 , 108.211,000 



111 connection with the foregoing statistics it may be stated that the product of 

 the Delaware River increased from $80,000 in 18S1 to over $500,000 in 1891. The 

 value of the fishery production in Erie, the only lake fishery port of Pennsylvania, 

 increased from $65,000 in 1885, at which time the whitefish hatchery was first started, 

 to $500,000 in 1892. It is therefore clear that the failure referred to can not be 

 attributed to remissness on the part of those having supervision of the hatcheries, 

 though probably the output and distribution from those in Pennsylvania were larger 

 than those of most of the other States. 



To what cause or causes, then, are to be charged this nonfulfillment of expecta- 

 tion in regard to the results of such extensive propagation and restocking? Except 

 in a few cases, we have nothing to indicate that there has been any marked increase of 

 fish products or that the generally prevailing decrease has received any material check. 



I propose now to briefly consider some of the many causes that have contributed, 

 in a greater or less degree, to the reduction of the food-fish supply, beginning with 

 those that have served most largely to render the fishery laws so nearly nugatory. 



First among them, is the widespread lack of comprehension of the vastness of the 

 fishery interests of this country — their real money value. The long -continued and still- 

 prevailing barrenness of so many of our waters is regarded by the majority as a natural 



