104 EEPOET OF THE SECEETARY OF COMMERCE 



The output of small mouth black bass, however, a variety most 

 eagerly sought by the sportsmen, was almost twice the production 

 of the previous year. There is no evidence of slackening in the 

 demand for hatchery-produced game fish, and in fact the increased 

 requirements for stocking areas now coming under the control of 

 the Federal Government constitute a serious problem. 



There was also a moderate increase in the output of fingerlings, 

 constituting the larger fish with a greater stocking value. The 

 distribution of these larger fish was approximately 4,000,000 greater 

 than last year. The list of the species propagated was practically 

 the same as during the previous year with the exception that no 

 white perch were handled during 1935, but a considerable number of 

 pollock was included in the figures for this year. 



The sportsmen's organizations and the general public have largely 

 accepted the requirement that they must themselves meet the cost 

 of transporting the fish f I'om the hatcheries. The problem of distri- 

 bution has been further simplified by the i-eadiness with which sev- 

 eral State fish and game departments have undertaken to handle the 

 fish produced at Federal hatcheries. 



PROPAGATION OF COMMERCIAL SPECIES 



Manne species^ Atlantic coast. — An increase of approximately 

 1,400,000,000 in the output of cod, haddock, pollock, and winter 

 flounder is to a large extent the result of the reopening of the 

 Gloucester (Mass.) station. However, a large percentage of this 

 increase is represented by eggs fertilized on the fishing boats and 

 planted on the spawning grounds, since funds were not available 

 for full-scale operation of the hatchery. The output of these marine 

 forms represents between 85 and 90 percent of tlie total output, a 

 ratio which is similar to the average over a number of years. No 

 cod were propagated at the Woods Hole (Mass.) station during the 

 year. 



Pacific salmon. — ^Wliile increases were registered for the output of 

 silver and chum salmon, there was a slight decline in the distribu- 

 tion of chinook variety, and a very large decline in the production 

 of sockeye salmon. This was due to negligible egg collections at the 

 Quinault (Wash.) station, ordinarily the biggest producer of sock- 

 eyes since closure of the Alaska stations. The run of fish did not 

 materialize, presumably on account of overfishing in previous years. 

 The number of all species of Pacific salmon distributed in the finger- 

 ling stage compares very favorably with the record of previous years. 



Anadromous species., Atlantic coast. — The production of shad was 

 virtually the same as in 1934. An output of 860,000 Atlantic sal- 

 mon in Maine was significantly larger than in the previous year 

 when Canadian eggs were not obtainable. Land-locked salmon were 

 produced in lesser numbers. An increase in output of yellow perch 

 to 450,000,000 was derived from resumption of this activity at the 

 Potomac River station at Fort Belvoir, Va. 



C ommercial species^ interior waters. — Restriction on the activities 

 of the hatcheries handling commercial species of the Great Lakes 

 has continued. Consequently, the output of whitefish and lake trout 

 has remained small, even though the production of whitefish was 

 approximately four times the 1934 figure. The Put-in-Bay (Ohio) 



