REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 41 



The small appropriation made by Congress in an act approved July 

 1, 1916, for a lobster-rearing plant proved entirely inadequate, even 

 when the capacity of the proposed plant was materially reduced from 

 time to time in an effort to bring it within the appropriation. Re- 

 quest for a supplemental appropriation was not approved by Congress. 

 In these circumstances, the appropriation has been turned back into 

 the Treasury in the expectation that the project may be revived later 



RESCUE OF STRANDED FOOD FISHES. 



An outgrowth of the fish-cultural work that has assumed very 

 great value and importance is the salvaging of food fishers from land- 

 locked ponds, pools, and bayous in overflowed districts of the Missis- 

 sippi valley. These fish, in the natural course of events, are destined 

 to perish and be entirely wasted when the shallow ponds in which 

 they have been left by the receding waters become dry or frozen. 

 During the fiscal year 1919 headquarters for rescue work were estab- 

 lished at eight points on the Mississippi extending from Minn(>sota 

 and Wisconsin to ^fississippi and Arkansas; and seining parties 

 from the various fish-cultural stations and the ])iological station at 

 Fairport covered a wide extent of territory and made collections in 

 excess of those of any previous year. Especially effective work was 

 done from Plomer, La Crosse, Bellevue, and Nortli McGr(^gor. When 

 the season closed about Deceml)er 1, there had been salvaged over 

 55,000,000 voung fishes, representing practically every important 

 species inhabiting those waters, with bufl'alofish, carp, catfish, crappie, 

 and yellow perch predominating, as showTi in the following table: 



Fishes Rescued From Overft^wed Waters of the Mississippi Valley Diuino 

 THE First Six Months of the Fiscal Year 1019. 



Black ba.sg, largemotith 445, 054 



Black bass, smallmoiith 2, 1 00 



BuffaloJish 2, 500, 3.35 



Carp 10, 74S, 5fi2 



Catfish 12, 607, 446 



Crappie 15, 805, 549 



Dnim 18, 077 



Pike 375, 037 



Pike perch 10, 710 



Rock ba.ss 810 



Simfiah 1, 065, 652 



White l»a.«fl 8, 665 



Yellow baas 600 



Yellow perch 2, 354, 438 



Miscellaneous 747, 250 



Total 55, 783, 075 



Praclically all the fishes thus saved are replanted in tlie adjacent 



fiublic waters, but a few are consigned to applicants in various States. 

 n 1919, 55,173,000 fish, more than 98.9 per cent of the total collec- 

 tions, were restored to the Mississippi and tributaries. 



Plans have been completed for conducting these operations on a 

 larger scale than heretofore during the fiscal year 1920, and the indi- 

 cations are that the results in 1919 will be more than doubled. The 

 extent of the work that may be accomplished depends mostly on the 

 funds that are available. There are productive^ fields yet untouched, 

 especially in the central section of the Mississipi)i valley, and the 



