THE DISTRIBUTION OF FISH AND FISH EGGS DURING THE 
FISCAL YEAR 1916, 
CHARACTER OF WORK. 
The fish-cultural operations of the Bureau of Fisheries are directed 
to the restoration and maintenance of the commercial fisheries of the 
country and to the development and extension of the fish-producing 
area of its interior waters. The needs of the great fisheries indus- 
tries, which embrace large investments of capital and contribute 
important food supplies of salmon, shad, codfish, lobster, etc., are 
paramount. The work of assembling and hatching the eggs of the 
commercial species and the liberating of the resulting fry in suitable 
waters has been unremittingly prosecuted by the Bureau, and there 
has been no relaxation of the efforts of past years to discover and 
develop new fields. A glance at the appended tabulation will disclose 
the magnitude of the distributions and the wide extent of territory 
covered. With an output of the size indicated it may readily be 
understood that it is necessary to liberate the greater portion of the 
fish during the very early stages of their existence. 
The fishes furnished for the stocking of the streams, lakes, and 
ponds of the interior during the fiscal year 1916 were largely of the 
fingerling sizes. Of trout, grayling, and salmon it has been possible 
to produce requisite numbers with facility, but the species applicable 
to the needs of a considerable portion of the country—the so-called 
warm-water fishes—are in a different category, and the Bureau has 
been unable to supply them in numbers sufficient to meet the rapidly 
growing demands. The eggs of fishes of this class, owing to adhe- 
siveness or other deterrent qualities, are not adapted to hatchery 
processes and resultant multiplication on a large scale. Their pro- 
duction is therefore limited to such numbers as the brood fishes 
themselves are able to bring off their nests in ponds where partial 
protection is afforded, and while the output of the pond fish-cultural 
stations is annually expanding, it is far from being adequate to satisfy 
public requirements. 
To make up for the deficiency so far as practicable, recourse is had 
to collections of the young of black bass and kindred species which 
abound in the temporary lagoons existmg at times in the high-water 
zones oi the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. 
