6 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



While complete and accurate data on the actual catch of fishes is 

 exceeding difficult, or impossible, to obtain, the figures taken from the 

 books of shipping firms and of dealers give some idea of the status of 

 the fishings. The data regarding the number, location, and ownership 

 of traps (Ch. Ill), when compared for several years, is significant and 

 points to a remarkable increase in this branch of the fisheries indus- 

 try. The tables show that from 1898, when the records were begun, to 

 the present year there has been a steady gradual increase from 119 

 traps to 249. An examination of the charts showing the location 

 of these traps through the series of years shows an interesting de- 

 velopment of ideas regarding the movements of fishes. 



From the studies on fisheries in various parts of the world there 

 seems to be no doubt but that the abundance or scarcity among many 

 species of fishes depends in large measure on the food supply; but the 

 question of food supply of marine fishes is as complex as it is interest- 

 ing and important. Since some species feed on others, these again 

 on a third, and these perhaps on minute Crustacea or diatoms, it soon 

 appears that no form of animal or plant can safely be neglected in a 

 study of the food and consequent movements of fish, or, for that mat- 

 ter, of shell fish, or of any other valuable marine animals. 



Your Commission, therefore, with what time can be spared from 

 more immediately important work, is conducting a survey of the 

 biological and physical conditions of the Bay, and is gradually getting 

 together such information. The fact that the federation of the fish- 

 eries boards of all the northern countries of Europe is conducting 

 this sort of a survey systematically and on a large scale is a fair indica- 

 tion of its value. 



The work of the Commission at its Wickford station has each year 

 increased in extent and eflSciency, and much of what a few years ago 

 was experimental has now a just claim to be called practical. This 

 work was undertaken with a view to the especial needs of Rhode 

 Island fishes, which could not be met by known methods of proced- 

 ure, so that most of the problems had to be worked out and methods 



