1164 U. S. BTIKEAU OF FISHERIES 



CRAIG BROOK (MB.) STATION 



[George N. Montgomery, Superintendent] 



In accordance with an existing agreement, this station received 1,000,000 

 Atlantic salmon eggs from hatcheries under the control of tlie Canadian Gov- 

 ernment. Of this stock two consignments of 20,000 eggs were supplied to the 

 States of Pennsylvania and California ; 125,000 were transferred to the Grand 

 Lake Stream auxiliary for development, and 715,000 were turned over to 

 hatcheries operated by the State of Maine, with the understanding that the 

 resulting fish would be held and fed for a period of two years and then liberated 

 in waters directly connected with the Atlantic Ocean. The fish developed from 

 eggs retained at the station numbered approximately 90,000 at the close of 

 the year. The station's distributions of this species during 1930 consisted 

 of 106,400 large fingerlings carried over from the hatch of the previous year 

 and liberated during September in tributaries of the Penobscot River. Ninety- 

 seven thousand fingerlings, derived from eggs turned over to the Maine fisheries 

 authorities by the bureau last year, were also liberated from hatcheries 

 operated by the State. As was the case last year, the weir fishermen of the 

 region were interviewed as to the status of the salmon fisheries. All reports 

 received were favorable though the fish were said to be running somewhat 

 small in size. On the whole, salmon fishing on the Penobscot River is con- 

 sidered to be good, though pollution conditions exist that are tending to reduce 

 the number ascending the river each year. 



FISHES OF MINOR INTERIOR WATERS 



By far the greater proportion of the existing hatchery facilities 

 in this country both State and Federal, is directed toward the propa- 

 gation of the game and semicommercial species indigenous to the 

 lesser waters of the interior section. It has been clearly demonstrated 

 by private clubs that the continuous restocking of a given body of 

 water with game varieties will assure the perpetuation of first-class 

 angling. The State and Federal hatcheries in distributing trout, 

 bass, and other game forms direct to public applicants, or in making 

 plants from the hatcheries, serve as a basis of supply for restocking 

 strictly public waters in the same manner as privately controlled 

 waters are administered. In view of the increasing tendency of pri- 

 vate individuals and organizations to purchase or lease control of 

 desirable fishing waters, the public welfare demands increasing 

 efforts on the part of Government agencies to provide equally good 

 fishing in the lakes and streams which still remain accessible to the 

 public. The problem involved in this work has widely divergent 

 aspects. In the more populous centers the situation has reached a 

 point where practically every fish which is to be caught must be 

 planted from some hatchery, since the factor of natural reproduction 

 is negligible. On the other hand, in the Western States the planting 

 of large numbers of trout is a means of supplementing the natural 

 reproduction and forestalling the depletion which has occurred in 

 other areas. The distribution of the product of a single hatchery 

 over a wide area, sometimes comprising several States, does not per- 

 mit plants of fish adequate to effect a real improvement at any par- 

 ticular location except in the case of the Southern States, where a 

 newly constructed artificial pond or lake may be supplied with an 

 initial stock. The ideal to be attained and to which progress is 

 constantly being made, is the establishment of a hatchery for each 

 outstanding fishing area or stream system, the output of which is to 

 be devoted to restocking local waters and not distributed over a great 

 expanse of country. 



