BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 161 



¥ol. IV, ]¥o. 11. Uashmg^ton, 1>. C. July 31, 1884. 



7r.— REPORT ON THE $>inAD ^ORK SN SOrXH CAROLIIVA IN 1883— 

 TRANSPORTATIOIV OF SHAD E008 OiV TRAYS. 



By C. J. IldSKi:, 



Supei'intendent of Fish and Fisheries. 



According to the best information we have, there are about 52,000 

 shad taken annually in the waters of South Carolina. This constitutes 

 the source to which we may look for our annual supply of eggs to prop- 

 agate fry for restocking our rivers artificially. From fifteen to twenty 

 thousand of this number are taken on Edisto Eiver, within a distance 

 along the river of about eight miles; the remaining number are taken 

 in the waters of Wiuyah Bay and along Waccamaw Eiver for a dis- 

 tance of twenty or thirty miles, while a few are taken from Santee Eiver, 

 and some, in small numbers, in most of the rivers from tide- water to the 

 shoals of the up-country. 



As has been i^reviously reported, we have established a station, at 

 small cost, on Edisto Eiver, the operations of which for the past season 

 will hereafter be reported ; and it now remains for us to develop a 

 station at Georgetown, and utilize, if possible, all ripe fish taken in the 

 waters thereabouts. The fishing here is scattered over a wide area, 

 and any work accomplished must, of necessity, be accompanied by 

 many difficulties, and, at best, we can only hope for a limited number 

 of eggs. To ascertain, if possible, some definite idea of the extent of 

 the fisheries here, and the possibility of utilizing this point as a station, 

 1 visited, in June last, Mr. W. StJ. Mazyck, who lives on Waccamaw 

 Eiver, with whom I had had some correspondence on this subject, 

 and made a partial inspection of the fisheries, with a view of locating a 

 station during the present season. I found that fishing on the Wacca- 

 maw above Georgetown was done by drift-nets, at such distances 

 apart as to render it impossible to attend all the boats with anything 

 like a reasonable force, or with a reasonable hope of collecting sufficient 

 spawn to justify the outlay it would have required to have carried on 

 the vvork, as the fishing was all done in daylight, at which time we can 

 obtain but few ripe fish. Besides these nets, there are some fish in 

 Winyah Bay, and during the latter part of the season a number of the 

 fishermen go up Sami)it Eiver, where they find shadding remunerative. 

 At this season the fish here are in an advanced state, and a majority of 

 those taken are ripe or in the ijroper condition to yield eggs. Mr. Mazyck, 

 writing in May of the x)resent year, informs me that one of the fisher- 

 men reported twenty-five rij)e shad taken on the 5th of April from 

 one net. This would be, averaging 20,000 eggs to a fish, 500,000 eggs. 

 Bull. U. S. F. C, 84 11 



