74 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



All iiuiuiry conductcil by the T'nited States Fisli Conunission in 18!)2 placed that 

 bureau in possession of information showing the extent of the shad fishery iu every 

 river of the Pacifie States. It Avas ascertained that in the year named 660,000 pounds 

 of shivd were marketed, the value of the same to the lisherinen being about $27,000. 

 Reports received during the present year indicate a catch of perhaps a million 

 pounds, and it seems reasonable to anticipate a steady increase in the production 

 with the improved facilities for shipment and the growing demand for fresh fish iu 

 the rising towns adjacent to the coast rivers. A careful estimate places the total 

 value of the shad catch on the Pacific Coast to date at $145,000, representing over 

 3,000,000 pounds, while the aggregate outlay for all purposes connected with the 

 introduction of the fry was less than $4,000. This is certainly a satisfactory invest- 

 ment of the jieople's money. 



The absence of a special scientific )n<iuiry precludes the possibility of chronicling 

 the changes which have probably been wrought in the haluts of the shad as a result 

 of the changed physical surroundings, thermic comlitious, enemies and food supply. 

 It may be noted, however, that the characteristic habit on the east coast of periodi- 

 cally ascending the rivers for. the purpose of spawning, and of returning, after the 

 completion of that process, to the open sea, where the principal part of the life of 

 the fish is spent, appears to be considerably modified, in California, at least, where 

 iu certain bays and estuaries the shad is found in greater or less abundance during 

 every mouth in the year. The evidence at hand indicates a condition prevailing in 

 the littoral and fluvial waters of the Pacific Coast that is very favorable to the growth 

 of the shad. It is not unusual to take examples considerably larger than any ever 

 seen iu the eastern rivers. The average weight of the shad caught on the Atlantic 

 Coast is under 4 pounds, and the capture of fish weighing 7, 8, or 9 pounds is 

 extremely rare. In California, however, it is not uncommon to secure shad weighing 

 8 or 10 ijounds, and rei)ort8 have been made that 15-pound individuals have occa- 

 sionally beeu obtained in salmon nets. 



Of scarcely less consequence than the actual results of shad introduction on the 

 west coast is the important bearing wliich the success of the experiment must have 

 iu determining the outcome of artificial propagation in regious iu which it is not 

 possible to distinguish with satisfactory accuracy the natural from the artificial con- 

 ditions. If these far-reaching, and no doubt permanent, results attend the planting, 

 on few occasions, of small numbers of fry in waters to which the fish are not indige- 

 nous, is it not permissible to assume that much more striking consequences must 

 follow the planting of enormous quantities of fry, year after year, in iiativo waters? 

 There is no reasonable doubt that the perpetuation of the extensive shad fisheries in 

 most of the rivers of the Atlautic Coast has beeu accomplished entirely by artificial 

 propagation. On no other supposition can the maintenance and increase of the 

 supijly be accounted for. 



The introduction of the striped bass was accomplished in 1879, when about 150 

 fish, a few inches long, taken iu Shrewsbury River, New Jersey, were successfully 

 carried across the continent alid deposited at the mouth of the Sacramento River by 

 an agent of the United States Fish Commission, cooperating with the California 

 commission. Six or seven months later an example 8 inches in length was reported 

 from Monterey Bay, 100 miles south of the locality where planted, and in eleven 

 months another specimen 12.^ iuches long, and weighing 1 pound, was caught in San 

 Francisco Harbor. This very rapid growth indicated the special adaptability^ of 

 the waters of the region to this fish. In 1882 another plant, consisting of 300 fish, 

 was made in the same region by the California authorities. As a result of these 

 two small deposits, the speeie3 soon became distributed along the entire coast of 

 California; its occurrence, however, in the other States of the region has not yet 

 been determined. 



The history of the striped bass is similar to that of the shad. It has attained 

 considerable cominercial iini)ortance, has increased steadily and rapidly, and is 

 generally regarded as one of the best food-fishes of the coast. It has not yet attained 

 anything like the abundance of the shad, nor was this to have been expected from the 



