38 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES* 



BOOTHBAY HARBOR (ME.) STATION. 

 [E. E. Hahn, Superintendent.] 



Fish -cultural work at this station during the year was addressed ^ 

 to the winter flounder and the pollock and resulted in an output of 

 841,235,000 and 11,906,000 of the respective species. The pollock fry 

 were produced from eggs collected in the Gloucester fields and rep- 

 resent the first really successful attempt to make long-distance ship- 

 ments of pollock eggs. Collection of flatfish eggs was commenced 

 February 23 and continued to April 22. A total of 6,298 female 

 brood fish were handled during the season and yielded 906,696,000 

 eggs. Though weather conditions favored the work, the spawning 

 season ended earlier than usual, and because of this circumstance the 

 take of brood fish was smaller than had been anticipated. On the 

 other hand, the female fish taken were above the average in size and 

 yielded a correspondingly large number of eggs. Some experiments 

 in the rearing of the fry were conducted but without marked results. 



A careful watch of the local fishing grounds where a limited num- 

 ber of boats engage in a spring fishery for cod and haddock was 

 maintained with the view of obtaining eggs. The results were nega- 

 tive, however, as has been the case for several seasons, no fish in 

 spawning condition being taken. Similar results followed a con- 

 tinuation of an effort to locate spawning areas of the alewife in the 

 Damariscotta Kiver and other points in the vicinity of Boothbay 

 Harbor. 



The steamer Gannet has been connected with the work of this sta- 

 tion and has rendered valuable assistance in fish-cultural operations, 

 particularly in the flatfish work, also in transporting men and sup- 

 plies in connection with the repairs that have been made to the lob- 

 ster pound at Pemaquid. Me. 



GLOUCESTER (MASS.) STATION. 

 [C. G. CoKLiss, Superintendent.] 



In this field the output of pollock fry has for a number of years 

 been larger than that of any other species propagated. With the 

 general adoption of the gill net for taking pollock in the shore fish- 

 ery and the prevailing high prices, this fish, which was formerly of 

 minor impoi'tance, has come into high favor. During the calendar 

 year 1920 more than 4,000,000 pounds of pollock, valued at $118,502, 

 were landed fresh at Gloucester, Mass., approximately 3,745,000 

 pounds of this amount having been taken in the shore fishery. In 

 1921, the pollock spawning season extended from November 15 to 

 January 21, and the Q^g collections aggregated 650,850,000 as com- 

 pared to 954,800,000 the preceding year. In the course of the fishing 

 .season there was a rather sharp decline in the market price of pol- 

 lock, which resulted in the withdrawal of many boats from this line 

 of work. The weather throughout the spawning period was excep- 

 tionally good, and to this fact the higher quality of the eggs obtained 

 is attributed. Twenty-four million of the eggs were transferred to 

 the Boothbay Harbor (Me.) station, and the remainder produced 

 443,160.000 fry, which were distributed on the pollock spawning 

 grounds. 



