REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 19 



CONSERVATION OF FISHERY RESOURCES. 



The year has been marked by unusual interest in the protection of 

 the inhabitants of our interior and coastwise waters and by note- 

 worthy movements for the maintenance of fishery resources. Fore- 

 most among the measures of this kind is the formation of the Na- 

 tional Conservation Commission, whose plans and purposes are of 

 far-reaching importance to the fisheries. It is hoped that, in addi- 

 tion to its other functions, this commission will definitely ascertain 

 and recommend the relations that the fisheries should bear to agri- 

 culture, forestry, navigation, mining, and other industries, and will 

 also take steps for cooperation between fishing and irrigation in all 

 public and interstate waters. 



Another very important matter affecting the fisheries is the con- 

 vention concluded between the United States and Great Britain 

 under date of April 11, 1908, by which international regulations for 

 the protection and preservation of the food fishes of the Great Lakes 

 and other waters contiguous to the United States and Canada will be 

 formulated and enforced by an international commission appointed 

 by the two Governments. The necessity for such an international 

 agreement has long been appreciated ; and the practical unanimity 

 with which the States have been willing to relinquish jurisdiction 

 heretofore exercised is a most encouraging evidence of regard for the 

 welfare of the fisheries. 



The most serious condition now confronting the American fishing 

 industry is the failure of the States to afford adequate protection to 

 migratory fishes in state and interstate waters. With the history of 

 the New England salmon fishery as a warning, some of the States 

 seem yet absolutely indifferent to the crying needs of fisheries for 

 species of similar habits, whose obliteration is as certain as that of 

 the salmon in the Kennebec and the sturgeon in the Potomac, unless 

 radical corrective measures are taken. The fishes most in need of con- 

 sideration are the shad, the striped bass, and the sturgeon on the 

 Atlantic coast and the salmons in the Pacific States. 



The striped bass has been referred to elsewhere. The disappear- 

 ance of the sturgeon from nearly every east-coast river shows how 

 greed and indifference may in a single generation destroy a valuable 

 fishery. The case of the shad has frequently been pointed out in the 

 reports of the Bureau; the general decline of this fishery, and con- 

 sequently in the hatchery work, for which eggs are obtained from fish 

 caught for market, has been arrested only in North Carolina among 

 all the States in which the Bureau engages in shad cultivation. The 

 immediate effect of sensible protective measures in this State shows 

 the results that may be expected from similar legislation for the vari- 

 ous important streams, like the Potomac, the Susquehanna, and the 

 Delaware, in which the shad has been persistently destroyed year 

 after year without any regard for the future. 



The condition and trend of the salmon fishery of the Columbia 

 River is cause for serious concern. The situation has demanded 

 prompt and judicious action if this fishery is to be preserved, yet 

 factional and personal considerations have been allowed to interfere 

 with the passage of the needed laws, and the condition remains un- 

 relieved. The Bureau's efforts in artificial propagation are nega- 



