BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISIT COMMLSSION. 113 



Vol. TI, I¥o. 8. ^Va$!iliiii^toii, D. C. June 15, 1886. 



40.— FRd:DOra OF MIORATION FOR FI^H IIV OFRMANV.* 



By H. KELLER. 



Thus far the German Fishery Association has mainly devoted its ac- 

 tivity to the promotion of artificial fish-culture and to the stocking of 

 our waters with young fry. Millions of young salmon had been placed 

 in those watercourses that seemed to offer a guarantee for their future 

 well-being. These fish have flourished, but unfortunately they do not 

 return. All efforts to regain our former abundance of fish will not reach 

 the object in view until the migratory fish again have free access to 

 their spawning places, and until they everywhere enjoy full protection 

 during the spawning season. If the German Fishery Association has 

 been less active in this direction, the reason for this must be sought 

 principally in the circumstance that the great difficulties can be con- 

 quered only by aid of a determined and i)ersisteut support from public 

 opinion ; and this applies especially to the difficulties which at present 

 are still opposing the unhindered migration of our fine food-fish. 



How small do the results of the salmon fisheries of the Ehine — at 

 present counting only b}^ hundreds — appear when compared with the 

 results of these fisheries during the Middle Ages, when it became neces- 

 sary to protect the apprentices and servants at Cologne and Mayence 

 by an oflflcial decree against being compelled to eat Khiue salmon during 

 the season every day, both for dinner and supper! In those times 

 the headwaters of the tributaries of the Rhine, which possess an abun- 

 dance of excellent spaAvning places, were not yet cut off by weirs. We 

 have evidence that in former times the tributaries of the upper Moselle, 

 the Lahn, and the Neckar were full of salmon and sea-trout. Now these 

 streams, from which the Ehine received its supply of fry, are inaccessi- 

 ble to the spawning fish. Every new weir constructed in the Vosges 

 Mountains and in the Westerwald has cut off a portion of our salmon, 

 until but faint traces of their former abundance remain. The worst 

 enemies of the migratory fish of the Rhine do not dwell near its mouth 

 but near its headwaters. It is the weirs which make the natural 

 spawning places of the salmon inaccessible, and therefore prevent the 

 increase of this fish. The condition of affairs is still more deplorable 

 in most of the other streams of Germany, many of which have weirs in 

 the middle portions of their course, weirs so high that the salmon can 

 leap over them only under specially favorable circumstances. 



* " Die Freiziiyifjleit dvr Edelfinche:' From Circular No. 1, 1886, of the German Fish- 

 ery Association, Berlin, March 4, 1886. Translatefl from the German hy Herman 

 Jacobsox. 



BuU. U. 8. F. C, SG 8 



