DISTRIBUTION OF FISH AND FISH EGGS DURING 

 THE FISCAL YEAR 1919. 



DESCRIPTION OF WORK. 

 EXTENT AND CHARACTER OF OPERATIONS, 



During the fiscal year 1919 the Bureau of Fisheries produced at 

 its fish-cultural stations 5,876,985,350 fish and fish eggs and dis- 

 seminated them throughout the country, its distributions embracing 

 every section of the United States and the coastal regions of Alaska. 



Approximately 95 per cent of this output consisted, as heretofore, 

 of the salmons, shad, whitefish, pike perch, yellow perch, lake trout, 

 cod, pollock, haddock, and winter flounder, which constitute the 

 more important commercial species ; aU of which fishes were planted 

 by the Bureau either on or adjacent to the spawning grounds from 

 wliich the eggs originated or in nonproductive waters where the 

 natural conditions appear to favor the development of new and 

 profitable fisheries. 



Tliough relatively small in numbers of fishes produced, that branch 

 of the work pertaining to the production of fishes suitable for stocking 

 interior waters is in reality a very important part of the Bureau's 

 activities. Aside from its economic value, which is large and is 

 constantly increasmg, its prosecution necessarily involves contact and 

 cooperation with the general pubHc, thus serving to arouse and 

 stimulate an interest in the fisheries which can not be other than 

 beneficial in its effect. Among the fishes most extensively propagated 

 for stocking ponds, lakes, and streams, both public and private, are 

 the various trouts — ^brook, rainbow, and blackspotted — ^the large- 

 mouth and smalhnouth black bass, rock bass, sunfish, crappie, and 

 catfish. Various other species are also handled in limited numbers. 



Willie the output of the pondfish cultural stations is annually 

 expanding, it is far from being sufficient to meet public requirements. 

 The deficiency is made up to some extent from the collections of young 

 food fishes which are found in large numbers in the temporary lagoons 

 existing during certain seasons of the j^ear in tlie high-water zones 

 along the Mississippi River and some of its tributaries. Early in the 

 year these rivers overflow their banks and spread out over miles of 

 territory, and in the warm shallows thus formed many varieties of 

 native food and game fishes deposit their spawn. With the subsidence 

 of the floods the young fishes resulting from such spawn are im- 

 prisoned in the thousands of depressions existing, at clepths ranging 

 from a few inches to several feet. Here they are exposed for several 

 months to the depredations of game birds and aquatic enemies and, 

 if not removed, all of them finally perish with the drying and freezing 

 of the pools. The great bulk of the immense numbers of fishes 



35286°— 21 5 3 



