PROPAGATION AND DISTRIBUTIOK OF FOOD FISHES, 1921. 3 



During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1921, 62 per cent of the 

 appropriation provided by Congress for the propagation and dis- 

 tribution of food fishes was expended in the maintenance and develop- 

 ment of the commercial fisheries.^ The remaining portion of the 

 fund was devoted to the equally important, though less extensive, 

 work of producing and disseminating in the interior waters of the 

 country various species of trout and the so-called warm-water fishes, 

 including the black basses, crappies, and sunfish. The widely ex- 

 tended and rapidly increasing use of the automobile has opened 

 to tourists and sportsmen numerous trout and bass waters which 

 were formerly inaccessible, with the result that interior streams and 

 lakes in all parts of the country have been heavily overfished. Of 

 all fishermen concerned automobilists as a class are perhaps the 

 most law-abiding, but their rapidl}' increasing numbers and their 

 habit of camping near a promising body of water and fishing it for 

 an extended period — sometimes for several days — has constituted 

 a drain which it will not be easy to make good. xV most serious aspect 

 of the situation is that it threatens the resources of waters which 

 have never lieretofore required any appreciable effort on the part 

 of either Federal or State agencies to maintain. The greatest danger 

 in this respect lies in the AVestern mountain States, in New England, 

 and in other parts of the country which abound in natural scenic 

 beauty. 



The situation is a grave one, and if not given proper and imme- 

 diate attention by the States concerned and by the Federal Govern- 

 ment there is imminent danger of the total depU'tion of fish life in 

 many valuable waters which have heretofore yielded an abundant 

 supply. The advantages of keeping the interior waters of the coun- 

 try' well stocked with tlie game and food fishes adapted to them are 

 many and obvious. By such means a cheap and very desirable food 

 supply is afforded to a certain class of people who would otherwise 

 be una])le to" enjoy it. Vast numbers of people are inspired by the 

 lure of good fishing to seek the great out-of-doors, with very bene- 

 ficial results to their health, aside from the recreation afforded. 

 Certain of the State authorities who are not able to cope with the 

 difficulty have applied to the Bureau of Fisheries for aid, but in most 

 instances it could not be given, the bureau's resources having been 

 already greatly overtaxed in the effort to maintain the scope of its 

 work along previously established lines. 



The bureau's efforts in fish culture are directed chiefly toward the 

 maintenance of the existing fisheries of the country and toward the 

 development of new and profitable sources of fish supply by extend- 

 ing its operations over a wider territory in fields contiguous to the 

 present stations. Five important functions are involved in this work, 

 namely, the collections of eggs from various species of fish of 

 economic value, the incubation of the eggs in properly equipped 

 hatcheries, the rearing and feeding of the young of certain species, 

 the rescue of stranded fishes from overflow waters in the Mississippi 

 Valley, and the distribution of fish and fish eggs in suital)le waters. 



*Thc oxpfnfllfiirfs involved in flislrlliiitinK tliP oiitpnf of the liatclifriiH rpprosontH 

 approximately 17 por cent of thp total api)ropriatloD, and .'{0 ppp fpnt of tlilw amount 

 represents the expenditures In connection with tiie commercial species. 



