REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 49 



([uato State ])rotoctivc laws and lax onforccincMit of those on the 

 statute books. The superintendent of tlie station reports that the 

 fishermen on the Susquehanna Rivor operate anchored gill nets, which 

 in many instances are lifted only once a day. Shad cauglit in these 

 nets are stripped of their eggs by eels, and thus not only made useless 

 for fish culture, l)ut reduced in commercial value. There is a law 

 prohibiting the use of these nets, but it is not enforced. The work 

 at this station with the white i)erch and yellow perch was successful, 

 the output of these fishes showing a material increase over that of the 

 preceding year. 



In Albemarle Sound, where fishing is regulated by well-enforced 

 law^s, shad w^ere very abundant during the spawning season, large 

 numbers behig captured by both the trap and the gUl-net fishermen. 

 For the Edenton station 115,017,000 eggs were secured, and the out- 

 put was 54 per cent greater than that of 1911. The beneficial efl'ects 

 of the protective legislation referred to are so plainly discernible 

 that, encouraged thereby, the Bureau is planning to extend its shad- 

 propagating work by the establishment of an auxiliary station on 

 the low^er sound, in the vicinity of the Scuppernong and Perquimans 

 Rivers. 



The output of striped bass fry on the Roanoke River amounted to 

 5,356,000. Though exceeding the output of any season since the 

 establisliment of the station at Weldon, the results of the work are 

 not viewed with satisfaction, considering the fact that a single 

 female striped bass often contains as many as 5,000,000 eggs. The 

 usual impediment of high water at the height of the spawning season 

 was again encountered, but even under the most favorable natural 

 conditions it has so far been impossible to produce striped bass in 

 comparatively large numbers, owing to the difficulty of securing ripe 

 fish of both sexes at one time. It is hardly probable that extensive 

 results can l)e attained until some method has been devised of holding 

 the fish in pens to ripen. 



POND CULTURE. 



Under favorable conditions little difficulty is experienced in pro- 

 ducing in adequate numbers fishes that can be artificially propagated 

 by the manipulation of their eggs, but the constantly growing demands 

 for the black basses, crappies, sunfishes, and catfishes, which must bo 

 allowed to reproduce naturally in ponds, make it imperative that the 

 Bureau endeavor to pro])agate these various warm-water fishes in 

 larger numbers. Heretofore the output has depended to a large 

 extent upon the collections made from the overflows of the Mississippi 

 and Illinois Rivc^rs. When the water stages are favorable this source 

 furnishes an abundant supply, but there are occasionally Icmg periods 

 of ch-ouLrht and low-water staws in the rivers, necessitating the 



