FISH PROTECTION AND FISH PRODUCTION. 



By SEYHOUR BOWER. 



Wliile we must in the future, as in the past, depend upon 

 scientific research to indicate the best methods of propagating 

 and cultivating water life, yet many of the complex and intricate 

 problems that spring from a consideration of fishery economics 

 are of minor importance when compared with the practical and 

 less diiificult questions that arise. These minor considerations 

 differentiate in endless ramifications, affording a broad and inter- 

 esting field for the scientist and investigator. Water life, from 

 its lowest forms up, is a mysterious maze of combinations and 

 possil)ilities, involved in which are many paths that will never be 

 explored and many secrets that will never be disclosed. 



But though many of these intricate problems shall never be 

 solved and the door to a perfect knowledge of the interrelations 

 of water life shall remain forever barred, yet we are no worse off 

 than the ignorant but thrifty husbaridman, who, with the simple 

 knowledge of wiien and how to sow and when and how to reap, 

 secures almost as large a crop as though he understood to a 

 nicety the combination and relation of every element and process 

 of development. 



The term "fish protection" is a deceptive generality that may 

 mean much or little, but which is ciuite apt to lead the unthink- 

 ing into the error of supposing that in order to carry the annual 

 production of mature fish to the highest point, the privilegQ of 

 catching them must be surrounded at every turn with nearly pro- 

 hibitive restrictions, whereas, protection in its truest sense and 

 in its true relation to production, seeks to provitle an increase, 

 not decrease, in the annual harvest of adults. The real problem, 

 therefore, is to determine what measures shall be adopted to en- 

 able us to remove the largest possible number of mature fish 

 from the waters each year without depleting them. 



Fish life is surrounded, perhaps to a greater extent than any 

 other form of animal, with natural enemies and dangers that 

 imperil existence at every stage and every turn. Nature, of 

 course, has provided for each some means of defense or escape; 

 but there is incessant warfare and destruction from the moment 

 the ova are laid — indeed, with many species by far the greater 

 part of till' (lcstructi(^n is \\rought during the (Tvum stage. Each 



