14 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



Assignments of Fish and Fish Eggs to State Fish Commissions, ktc. — Con. 



In realization of the great and growing need for more adequate 

 laws for the protection of food and game fishes in various parts of 

 the country, the Bureau has been in communication with the fishery 

 authorities of a number of States. Attention lias been directed in 

 certain cases to the lack of suitable laws or to the lack of stringent 

 enforcement of the laAvs, and the States have been reminded of the 

 stipulation made by Congress in connection with the annual appro- 

 priation for the propagation of food fishes, which prohibits the ex- 

 penditure of funds for hatching or planting fish in any State where, 

 in the judgment of the Secretary of Commerce, inadequate protection 

 is afforded the particular species handled. In every instance the 

 response to the Bureau's communication has shown a desire on the 

 part of the States to bring about any needed reforms in fishery 

 legislation, and there is reason to believe that some States that have 

 been derelict in this matter will enact new and better laws in the 

 near future. It has been the Bureau's policy not to summarily recom- 

 mend the discontinuance of fish-cultural work in any State, but to 

 use every proper influence to bring the States in line for the main- 

 tenance of their fij^h and other aquatic animals. 



The shad hatchery at the head of the Chesapeake Bay, near Havre 

 de Grace, Md., closed by the Secretary of Commerce in 1917 for 

 reasons fully set forth in published reports, has been definitely 

 abandoned, as the State gives no indication or intimation of an in- 

 tention to meet the conditions imposed by law. The equipment and 

 machinery have been transferred to other stations, the major build- 



