THE DISTRIBUTION OF FISH AND FISH EGGS DURING THE 



FISCAL YEAR 1917. 



CHARACTER OF WORK. 



The fish-cultural operations of the Bureau of Fisheries are directed 

 to the restoration and maintenance of the commercial fisheries of the 

 country and to the development and extension of the fish-producing 

 area of its interior waters. The needs of the great fisheries indus- 

 tries, which embrace large investments of capital and contribute 

 important food supphes of salmon, shad, codfish, lobster, etc., are 

 paramount. The work of assembling and hatching the eggs of the 

 commercial species and the liberating of the resulting fry in suitable 

 waters have been unremittingly prosecuted by the Bureau, and there 

 has been no relaxation of the efforts of past years to discover and 

 develop new fields. A glance at the appended tabulation will disclose 

 the magnitude of the distributions and the wide extent of territory 

 covered. With an output of the size indicated it may readily be 

 understood that it is necessary to liberate the greater portion of the 

 fish during the very early stages of their existence. 



The fishes furnished for the stocking of the streams, lakes, and 

 ponds of the interior during the fiscal year 1917 were largely of the 

 fingerling sizes. Of trout, grayling, and salmon it has been possible 

 to produce requisite numbers with facility, but the species applicable 

 to the needs of a considerable portion of the country — the so-called 

 warm-water fishes — are in a different category, and the Bureau has 

 been unable to supply them in numbers sufficient to meet the rapidly 

 growing demands. The eggs of fishes of this class, owing to adhe- 

 siveness or other deterrent qualities, are not adapted to hatchery 

 processes and resultant multiplication on a large scale. Their pro- 

 duction is therefore limited to such numbers as the brood fishes 

 themselves are able to bring off their nests in ponds where partial 

 protection is afforded, and while the output of the pond fish-cultural 

 stations is annually expanding, it is far from being adequate to satisfy 

 public requirements. 



To make up for the deficiency so far as practicable, recourse is had 

 to collections of the young of black bass and kindred species which 

 abound in the temporary lagoons existing at times in the high-water 

 zones of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. 



