REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 49 



quate State protective laws and lax enforcement of those on the 

 statute books. The superintendent of the station reports that the 

 fishermen on the Susquehanna River operate anchored gill nets, which 

 in many instances are lifted only once a day. Shad caught in these 

 nets are stripped of their eggs by eels, and thus not only made useless 

 for fish culture, but reduced in commercial value. There is a law 

 prohibiting the use of these nets, but it is not enforced. The work 

 at this station with the white perch and yellow perch was successful, 

 the output of these fishes showing a material increase over that of the 

 preceding year. 



In Albemarle Sound, where fishing is regulated by well-enforced 

 laws, shad were very abundant during the spawnhig season, large 

 numbers being captured by both the trap and the gill-net fishermen. 

 For the Edenton station 115,617,000 eggs were secured, and the out- 

 put was 54 per cent greater than that of 1911. The beneficial effects 

 of the protective legislation referred to are so plainly discernible 

 that, encouraged thereby, the Bureau is planning to extend its shad- 

 propagating w^ork by the establishment of an auxiliary station on 

 the lower sound, in the vicinity of the Scuppernong and Perquimans 

 Rivers. 



The output of striped bass fry on the Roanoke River amounted to 

 5,356,000. Though exceeding the output of any season since the 

 establishment of the station at Weldon, the results of the work are 

 not viewed with satisfaction, considering the fact that a single 

 female striped bass often contains as many as 5,000,000 eggs. The 

 usual impediment of high water at the height of the spawning season 

 was again encountered, but even under the most favorable natural 

 conditions it has so far been impossible to produce striped bass in 

 comparatively large numbers, owing to the difficulty of securing ripe 

 fish of both sexes at one time. Tt is hardly probable that extensive 

 results can be attained until some method has been (h^vised of holding 

 the fish in pens to ripen. 



POND CULTURE. 



Under favorable conditions little difficulty is experienced in pro^ 

 ducing in adequate numbers fishes that can be artificially propagated 

 by the manipulation of their eggs, but the constantly growing demands 

 for the black basses, crappies, sunfishes, and catfishes, Avhich must bo 

 allowed to reproduce naturally in ponds, make it imperative that the 

 Bureau endeavor to propagate these various warm-water fishes in 

 larger numbers. Heretofore the output has depended to a large 

 extent upon the collections made from the overflows of the Mississippi 

 and Illinois Rivers. When the water stages are favorable this source 

 furnishes an abundant supply, but there are occasionally long periods 

 of drought and low-water stages in the rivers, necessitating the 



