2. -NOTES ON BISCAYNE BAY, FLORIDA, WITH REFERENCE TO 

 ITS ADAPTABILITY AS THE SITE OF A MARINE HATCHING AND 

 EXPERIMENT STATION. 



By Hugh M. Smith, 

 Assistant in Charge of Division of Statistics and Methods of the Fisheries. 



The United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries having under 

 consideration the establishment of a hatching and experiment station 

 on the coast of Florida, the writer was directed to visit Biscayne Bay 

 to ascertain the adaptability of the region for the purpose named. A 

 period of about two weeks in February, 1895, was devoted to the exam- 

 ination, and the accompanying memoranda embody the observations 

 then made. 



In constructing a station on the east coast of Florida for the purpose 

 of preserving and increasing the siTpply of economic marine products 

 of the region, of studying scientific j)roblems having an important 

 bearing on the directly ijractical work of such a station, and of point- 

 ing out the lines along which the fishery resources of the State may be 

 developed, the essential point to be determined is the most advanta- 

 geous location. 



The desire of the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries to have such 

 a station deal with as many classes of water animals as can properly 

 be considered, including sponges, oysters, turtles, terrapins, and, pos- 

 sibly, several crustaceans, as well as fish, makes it necessary to seek a 

 more southern position than would be r quired if the operations were 

 to be more restricted. The interest of late being manifested in the 

 preservation and extension of the sponge fishery, both by the public 

 men of the State and by those engaged in the industry, renders it 

 especially desirable that sponges should be one of the subjects to receive 

 attention. As the natural distribution of the marketable sponges em- 

 braces only the southern fourth of the east coast of the State, a marine 

 station would have to be located at least as far south as Lake Worth. 

 The latter body of water has many advantages as the site of a station, 

 being readily accessible by rail, bountifully suj)plied with desirable 

 food-fishes, and possessing excellent land features; but the abs'^nce of 

 a natural growth of sponges in the lake itself, and the excessive salinity 

 of the water, owing to the circumstance that no fresh-water streams 

 drain into the lake, thus precluding the possibility of successful oyster 



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