PKOPAGATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD FISHES, 1925 459 



been reduced to 827 fish with a total weight of 15.25 ounces. This 

 was typical of the results achieved at other stations, and appears to 

 indicate the superiority of an all beef -heart food. 



SUCCESSFUL STOCKING OF MONTANA'S LARGEST LAKE WITH 

 GREAT LAKES WHITEFISH 



About four years ago the Montana fish and game authorities ob- 

 tained from one of the bureau's Great Lakes stations a consignment 

 of eyed whitefish eggs with the view of determining the possibility of 

 developing a commercial fishery in Flathead Lake. The attempt to 

 commercialize this lake aroused so much adverse criticism and antag- 

 onism on the part of the fishermen of the State that after making one 

 plant of fish the work was abandoned. While the State fish and 

 game commission was engaged in net fishing in the lake in June, 1925, 

 it was discovered that the initial plant of fry had borne results, 

 practically every seine haul containing fine examples of whitefish 

 {Coregonus clwpeiformis) . This demonstrated success of a single 

 plant of the species has renewed interest in the project, and many of 

 the sportsmen who formerly opposed it on the ground that it might 

 prove detrimental to game fishing are now in favor of the scheme. 



BROOD PIKE AT SWANTON, VT. 



An interesting feature of the pike perch work at Swanton, Vt., was 

 the unusually large number of brood fish taken in seines, 7,379 of such 

 fish being secured, as compared with 4,319 in the preceding year. 

 At one of the seining beaches over 1,000 large brood fish were takcT^ 

 in a single day. 



RIPE HALIBUT EGGS 



Ripe halibut eggs in large quantities were found in close proximity 

 to the ice fields off Riggs Point, in the Strait of Belle Isle, on May 21, 

 1925. Captain Morrissey, of the schooner Henry Ford, stated that 

 for the first time in his many years of experience in the halibut fish- 

 eries he saw large numbers of halibut with eggs running freely. 



COMMERCIAL FISHERIES 



The work at a majority of the bureau's stations and substations 

 is devoted principally to the propagation or salvage of the more im- 

 portant commercial fishes. Some of the species referred to this 

 classification are the salmons of the Pacific coast, the lake trout, 

 whitefish, and cisco of the Great Lakes, the marine fishes of the 

 Atlantic coast (including the cod, pollock, haddock, and flounder), 

 such anadromous fishes as the shad, glut herring, and Atlantic 

 salmon, the buft'alo fishes of the Mississippi River region, and the 

 carp. The work with the latter species is confined to certain sec- 

 tions of Lake Erie. 



PACIFIC SALMONS 



Fish-cultural operations dealing almost exclusively with the Pacific 

 salmons are conducted at all of the bureau's stations and substations 

 located on the Pacific coast. The results of the year's work in this 



