POLLUTION OF STREAMS— AN APPEAL 

 TO ANGLERS.* 



By C. H. TOWNSEND, 



DIRECTOR OF THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM. 

 Formerly Chief of the Fisheries Division, United States Fish Commission. 



THE pollution of public waters is our most common act and 

 our most uncivilized practice. The casting of refuse in a 

 stream results only in transferring it from one neighborhood to 

 another. 



The great evil with which practical fish-culture in America has 

 to contend at the present time is the contamination of public 

 waters by sewage and the refuse of manufacturies. 



Although the propagation of fishes by artificial means has, in 

 this country, reached a degree of efficiency unequaled in other 

 countries, the preservation of streams in conditions desirable for 

 the maintenance of fish life has been singularly neglected. 



In a majority of those states which possess fishery resources 

 there exist more or less effective restrictions upon fishing and the 

 operation of fishery industries, but it is seldom that enactments 

 against the depositing of waste matter in fishing waters are 

 enforced. 



The annual output of fish fry from hatcheries in various parts 

 of the country, operated by the Fisheries Bureau at Washington, 

 has now reached the enormous figure of something like three 

 thousand millions. The fish cultural work of the different state 

 fishery commissions, taken collectively, yields probably equal 

 numbers of young fry. The Governmental part of the work is 

 done from no more than thirty-five or forty hatcheries scattered 

 over the country — a remarkable illustration of the efficiency of 

 artificial fertilization and rearing of fry. 



It would be safe to state that fish planting in America exceeds 

 that of all other countries put together. Fish culturists from 

 Europe and from countries as far away as Japan and New Zea- 

 land come here to studv our methods. 



*An address delivered to the Anglers' Club of New York, March 17, 

 1907. 



