1502 PISH CULTURE 



1 109 -The Improvement of Carp and Pikeperch Fisheries in Lake Balaton, Hun- 



gary(i). — Repassy, M. in Halaszat (Fishinjj;), Year XVII, No. 10, pp. 93-99. Burlapest, 

 May 15, 1916. 



In 1915, the company which holds the fishing rights of Lake Balaton 

 adopted a new scheme for restocking the lake. It was decided to propagate the 

 more valuable kinds of fish and more especially carp and pikeperch, the lat- 

 ter being the species of the greatest economic importance. The close 

 season was fixed for the whole of the month. of April. During that period 

 artificial spawning beds are to be laid down in places frequented by pike- 

 perch, and when spawning is finished the ova are to be collected and placed 

 in baskets close in to the shore and where the water is fairly still. Five 

 hundred spawning beds are to be used and it is expected that the eggs col- 

 lected will amount to at least 50 millions. Every autumn 10 tons of select- 

 ed fry will be set free in the lake. This will con.sist either of one year old 

 pikeperch averaging 2 ^/^ to 3 ^ ozs. or two year old carp weighing 

 from ^/4 to I % oz. 



Ever since the fishing was brought under revised management in 1900, 

 careful records have been kept of the amounts of the different species taken 

 from the lake. The figures from 1900-1915 are given in Table I. The to- 

 tal amount of fish landed varies considerably from year to year. Daily 

 catches even are extremely irregular, in one instance there is a record of as 

 much as 30 Ions being taken in one day in the Siolfolk fishing ground 

 alone. To eliminate these variations as much as possible the figures have 

 been collected into two 6 year periods in Table II. 



Treated in this way the records show that there has been a perceptible 

 change in the proportion which valuable species bear to inferior ones, re- 

 sulting in a small increase of the former, \yith regard to the total produc- 

 tion, there has been little variation between the two periods, the annual pro- 

 duce being 15.7 lbs. in the first period and 15.5 lbs. during the second period 

 per cadastral arpent. These figures are low compared to yields obtained 

 in artificial lakes, and bearing in mind the limits of the food supply in na- 

 tural waters it would appear that they are not susceptible to much increase. 

 The improvement of the fishery will rather be in the direction of developing 

 the valuable species at the expense of the inferior ones which are still six 

 times more numerous than carp and pij^eperch. During the second six 

 years period the slight change in ratio between the valuable and inferior 

 kinds (about 10 per cent) made a difference in the returns of over £ 750 

 per annum ; and if it were possible to replace another loo tons of bream or 

 shad by 100 tons of carp the annual value of the fish landed might be in- 

 creased by about £3000. 



In the years 1901, 1906 and 1909 carp fry were set free in Lake Bala- 

 ton and it may be seen from Table I. that these attempts at stocking the 

 lake had a distinct effect on the catches of the following seasons. 



(i) See B. Feb. 1916, pp. 180-187 : Fishing and Fiih Cullu e in Hungary. Original article by 



J . DE lyANDGRAF. 



