95 



INTER-STATE PROTECTION OF FOOD 

 FISHES. 



BY DR. BUSHROD W. JAMES — PHILADELPHIA FISH PROTECTIVE 



ASSOCIATION. 



Some years ago the subject of the United States 

 Government exercising a certain fish protecting con- 

 trol, or at least supervision over the rivers which run 

 through two or more states, and which are frequented 

 by shad, herring, salmon, trout, bass, and other species 

 of food fishes, was presented before this American 

 Fisheries, or Fish Protective Society, by the late United 

 States Fish Commissioner Marshall MacDonald, and 

 it was ably defended by some members of this Society, 

 the United States Fish Commission, I think, generally 

 supporting it; but the majority' of opinion outside 

 seemed, at that time, to be unfavorable to the measure. 



The proposition was made for the purpose of secur- 

 ing protection to the fish along the coast and also when 

 they are in the act of passing across the state lines in 

 order to enter their spawning grounds in the upper 

 rivers and their tributaries. Each part of the discus- 

 sion was clearly in favor either of United States super- 

 vision or of state supremacy, but decisions by the 

 Supreme Court of the United States have been made 

 that the measure would be unconstitutional, so that 

 each state maintains its exclusive right over its fishing 

 streams, except in a few instances, such as the states of 



