18 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
fishermen, to whose cooperation the Bureau is indebted for the suc- 
cessful shad work in recent years, are gradually being driven off the 
spawning grounds by the encroachments of the pound-net fishermen, 
who apparently take no interest in the work of artificial shad propa- 
gation. The records of the Edenton station show that the number 
of fishermen—principally gillers—furnishing eggs to the hatchery 
increased from 31 in 1910 to 67 in 1913, in which year the largest 
egg collections in the station’s history were made. Since that time 
the operations of the gillers haye rapidly declined, and only 17 were 
left to furnish eggs for the Bureau’s work in 1916. The output of 
fry from the eggs obtained numbered 9,765,000. 
Plans were made early in the spring at the Edenton station to 
undertake the hatching of the white perch, but the efforts to obtain 
eggs resulted in practical failure, only 1,200,000 being secured. The 
reason advanced for this poor outcome is the irregularity and un- 
certainty of the ripening of the fish, a feature which, from all accounts, 
has always existed in the Albemarle Sound region. The collection of 
these eggs began in March and extended well into April, and the 
output of fry was 850,000. 
With the view of prosecuting striped-bass work on a more efficient 
and extensive basis than heretofore, a time lease was secured on a 
building on the west bank of the Roanoke River, which was fitted 
up in advance of the spawning season. The opening of the spawn- 
ing season was delayed by heavy rains in April, but, aside from the 
shortening of the season by its late beginning, natural conditions were 
quite favorable and the season proved to be very successful, 13,325,000 
eggs being taken and 10,071,000 fry hatched therefrom. 
The shad work was extended during the year by the establishment 
and operation of two auxiliaries of the Orangeburg station on the 
Edisto River, S. C., and by the openmg of an experimental field 
station on the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. 
The spawning season on the Edisto was very short, and just at its 
height the work was stopped by the State warden, owing to some 
doubt on his part as to the legality of the fishing methods inaugu- 
rated in connection therewith. Before this difficulty could be cleared 
up and fishing resumed most of the run of shad had passed up the 
river. But for this interference considerable collections of eggs 
would, doubtless, have been made, as fish in spawning condition were 
fairly plentiful. The outcome was that 605,000 eggs were collected 
for the plant at Jacksonboro and 347,000 for the Branchville auxiliary. 
The output of fry from these two points amounted to 772,000, which 
were returned to the Edisto River in the immediate vicinity of the 
stations. 
The shad work on the Cape Fear River was undertaken largely at 
the request of the State authorities and Members of Congress, in 
order that the fishermen of that section of the State might receive 
some recognition for having been brought—very tardily} it must be 
said—under the provisions of the protective fishery laws that for years 
had applied to other parts of the State. The steamer Fish Hawk, 
equipped as a floating hatchery, was sent to the river, and a tem- 
porany hatching plant was set up at a convenient point on the river 
ank above Wilmington. 
The run of shad on the Cape Fear proved to be small, and of the 
shad taken at the various fisheries only one individual with ripe eggs 
