REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 17 
too low for the ripening of the eggs. During the latter half of the 
season, however, favorable conditions prevailed and 63,815,000 eggs 
were secured. These were hatched at the station, with the excep- 
tion of 2,076,000 shipped on assignments, and the resulting fry— 
58,232,700 in number—were widely distributed on the natural spawn- 
i rounds in the Potomac River. 
e satisfactory outcome of the shad season on this river, in strong 
contrast with the failures in recent years, is to be attributed, in part, 
to the restrictions imposed by the War Department on the pound-net 
fishermen operating in Chesapeake Bay and at the mouths of the 
tributary rivers. Definite lanes for navigation have been kept open, 
and the migrating schools have thus had a clearer passage than here- 
tofore to their spawning grounds in the upper part of the stream. 
The large run in 1916 may be attributed also to the favorable condi- 
tions for spawning four years before, when extensive egg collections 
were made. 
In advance of the shad season on the Potomac, 16,013 adult yellow 
erch were collected from the fishermen’s nets and placed in live cars. 
ere they began spawning at once and between March 29 and April 7 
mxdifiie: 152,235,000 eggs. Of these, 3,640,000 were used for exhi- 
ition purposes at Central Station, Washington, D. C., and from the 
remainder 137,101,000 excellent fry were hatched, all of which were 
planted in fine condition in tributary streams of the Potomac River, 
extending from Broad Creek, Md., to Occoquan Creek, Va., this ter- 
ritory comprising the principal breeding ground of the species. 
The shad operations on the Susquehanna River were attended by 
the usual discouraging results. On this river a specially destructive 
fishing device—the anchored gill net—is in extensive use at the 
present time, to the almost total exclusion of the drift net, from which 
eggs of good quality have always been derived. In practice the 
Scared: net is allowed to remain in position throughout the night, 
and on being lifted in the morning nearly all the shad with ripe eggs 
are found in a mutilated condition, having been preyed upon by eels. 
The spring’s work on the Susquehanna included the collecting of 
67,512,000 yellow-perch eggs, 153,700,000 white-perch eggs, and 
6,583,000 shad eggs. Eggs of the first-named species were obtained 
between April 3 and April 10, and the station output comprised 
25,500,000 eggs shipped on assignment, besides 33,400,000 fry. The 
white-perch season extended from April 15 to the end of that month. 
Of the eggs secured, 25,000,000 were supplied to applicants and the 
remainder produced 96,500,000 fry. The first shad eggs were taken 
April 19, and while the fishing season was long drawn out, extending 
far into June, eggs came into the hatchery in such small lots that it 
was deemed advisable on May 13 to discontinue this work, and the 
station was closed shortly afterwards. 
In Albemarle Sound slightly over 16,000,000 shad eggs constituted 
the season’s collections, making it one of the poorest experienced 
since the establishment of the Bureau’s station in that region. 
While the unfavorable showing was due in some measure to the cold 
northerly winds which prevailed throughout the spawning period, it 
is yearly becoming more evident that the Bureau’s efforts to maintain 
the shad fisheries of Albemarle Sound are not appreciated by all 
those who are deriving most of the benefit therefrom. The gill-net 
~ 
