570 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



of New England, by the Boston Society of Natural History. Part I 

 comprised tlie trouts or charrs of New Eii^j^laiid, published in 1914. 

 During the year the section of Part II pertaining to the Atlantic 

 salmon was comjileted and has been submitted to the Boston Society 

 and the section })ertaining to landlocked salmon is soon to follow. 



The topics covered by the " Memoir '' comprise about every phase 

 of the natural history of the salmons, with a history of New England 

 salmon rivers and original landlocked salmon lakes. The natural 

 distribution of the fish in North America is restricted to a compara- 

 tively few localities comprised in a wide area. While it has received 

 much fish-cultural attention, its fish-cultural distribution has been 

 ill-considered and its "' conservation " recklessly administered. The 

 author discusses to some length the subject of restoring of natural 

 salmon lakes that have apparently deteriorated in quantity, quality, 

 and size of fish. A reduction in quantity is usually easily accounted 

 for. While the causes of deterioration in quality or size of the fish 

 may be somewhat more obscure, there are usually associat<?d condi- 

 tions which indicate the probable causes. However, the author re- 

 i;ards the popular idea, that such deterioration is due to inbreeding, 

 as an absurd fallacy. Also that the introduction of '"new blood' 

 in the form of a smaller race of salmon or of " Canadian sea salmon '' 

 is equally fallacious. 



SHORE FISHERIES OF THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES 



The statistical canvass of 1926 showed that yields of several of 

 the more important shore fisheries were below normal in New York 

 and New Jersey. An investigation of the causes of this decline was 

 begun in 1927 and has been continued under the direction of R. A. 

 Nesbit. 



In order to understand what changes in yield have occurred, pub- 

 lished statistics w^ere studied and special records were collected di- 

 rectly from fishermen. The latter consisted of information tran- 

 scribed from business records of pound-net operators, lent for the 

 purpose, and since 1928, of information recorded daily on forms 

 provided by the bureau. These records have proved of great value, 

 and the cooperation of the 26 operators who kept these records is 

 gratefully acknowledged. 



Study of the causes of the changes in abundance occurring during 

 the course of the investigation was continued during 1930. For this 

 purpose, biological observations were made during j)art or all of the 

 1930 fishing season at each of the following field bases: Woods Hole. 

 Mass.; Newport, R. I.; Montauk and Fire Island, N. Y. ; Belford, 

 Long Branch, Deal, Seaside Park, Beach Haven, and Wildwood, 

 N. J. ; and Hampton and Cape Charles, Va. In the course of these 

 observations more than 100,000 fish were measured and 11,000 scale 

 samples from squeteague were collected. 



Chief progress has been made in analysis of the data relating to 

 s(iueteague and scup. Studies of the scales and length frequencies of 

 the former have provided a technique for age analysis of the com- 

 mercial catch. These studies have further demonstrated distinct 

 differences in rate of growth in several localities, the rate increasing 

 from Chesapeake Bay northward. A remarkable feature of these 



