PROPAGATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD FISHES, 1927 725 
CENTRAL STATION AND AQUARIUM, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
(L. G. HARRON, Superintendent] 
In order to display the methods and apparatus used in connection with fish- 
cultural work, an effort was made to exhibit, at the proper seasons, the hatching 
of eggs and fry of suitable species. The use of chlorine in the city water supply 
again had a disastrous effect on eggs and fry. } 
In addition, a creditable exhibit of fish and other aquatic animals was main- 
tained. There were shown 1,920 individual specimens representing 33 species. 
Considerable distribution was:made of fry hatched at the aquarium and of 
fingerlings taken from the Potomac River. Applicants in Maryland, Penn- 
sylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, West Virginia, and Delaware 
received rainbow trout, cisco, silver salmon, and pike perch from the hatchery 
eeubit, as well as warm-water species collected from the river and the Lakeland 
ponds. 
Part 2.—DISTRIBUTION OF FISH AND FISH EGGS 
[E. C. FEARNOW, Superintendent of Fish Distribution] 
In the distribution of the record-breaking output of 6,481,073,000 
fish and fish eggs from the bureau’s stations, it was necessary to 
make shipments to all parts of the United States. Shipments of 
fish eggs were made to Costa Rica, Italy, Japan, and Switzerland, 
and a consignment of small fish was forwarded to Canada. About 
97 per cent of the year’s output consisted of eggs and fry of the 
commercial fishes, and virtually all of these, with the exception of 
the comparatively few supplied to State fish commissions, were 
planted in the waters from which the eggs were obtained. The fishes 
included in this classification are as follows: Glut herring, whitefish, 
cisco, salmfons, pike perch, yellow perch, carp, buffalo fish, cod, 
haddock, and winter flounder. The species distributed to imterior 
waters are the brook, rainbow, black-spotted, and Loch Leven 
trouts, the largemouth black bass, smallmouth black bass, crappie, 
rock bass bream, and catfish. While the number of such fishes 
produced is comparatively small, representing 1 to 2 per cent of the 
entire output, at the time of shipment such fish are quite large, 
averaging approximately 3 inches in length, so that their distribu- 
tion is quite a difficult problem. As a rule the fry of the commercial 
species are carried 50,000 to 100,000 to the can, while not more than 
one hundred and fifty 3-inch fish can be carried safely in one of the 
regulation containers. It is the distribution of fish in interior lakes and 
streams that brings the bureau in close contact with the general public, 
and by this means a sentiment in favor of fish propagation and the 
conservation of fish in streams is being created throughout the United 
States. 
The work of distribution was exceedingly heavy at the bureau’s 
trout-producing stations, due to the establishment of a large number 
of cooperative stations in several States. Small trout are delivered 
at such stations during May and June and are reared until they are 
3 or 4 inches in length, when they are planted in suitable local waters. 
In addition to the general distribution to applicants during the spring, 
5 carloads of trout were delivered to cooperative projects in the 
State of Pennsylvania to be reared for distribution in the fall of 1927. 
A number of trout nurseries in Wisconsin and Minnesota required 
several carloads of trout to meet their requirements. 
