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REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 73 
have been extremely gratifying to fish-culturists, and perhaps more striking than 
any previously obtained in this or any other country. 
Among the fishes inhabiting the rivers and coast waters of the Atlantic Slope, none 
is better known, more important, and more highly esteemed than the shad (Clupea 
 sapidissima) and the striped bass or rockfish (Roceus lineatus), the former being a 
food-fish, pure and simple, the latter combining a gamey disposition with excellent 
food qualities. These fish are anadromous, entering the fresh water for the purpose 
of spawning and passing a large part of the year at sea or in the salt water. Atten- 
tion will be called to the experimental introduction of these fishes to the west coast, 
although several other important food-fish, among them the black bass (Micropterus 
salmoides) and catfish (Ameiurus nebulosus) might also be mentioned in this connection. 
The introduction of shad fry to the west coast was first undertaken as long ago as 
1871, when 12,000 young fish were deposited in the Sacramento River, under the 
auspices of the California Fish Commission. After that the experiment was taken 
up by the United States Fish Commission and carried on until 1886, during which 
time 609,000 young shad were placed in the Sacramento River, 600,000 in the Willa 
mette River, 300,000 in the Columbia River, and 10,000 in the Snake River. 
Two or three years after the first fish were planted a few more or less mature 
examples were obtained in the Sacramento River; as additional deposits were made, 
the number of marketable fish began to increase, and the fish gradually distributed 
themselves along the entire coast of the United States north of Monterey Bay, until 
finally they have come to rank next to salmon in abundance among the river fishes 
of the west coast. 
The United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, in his annual report for 
1887, speaking of the small plants of shad fry made in the Sacramento River at 
Tehama, says: 
From these slender colonies, aggregating less than 1 per cent of the number 
now annually planted in our Atlantic Slope rivers, the shad have multiplied and 
distributed themselves along 2,000 miles of coast, from the Golden Gate of California 
to Vancouver Island in British Columbia. They are abundant in some of the rivers, 
common in most of them, and occasional ones may be found everywhere in the 
estuaries and bays of this long coast line. 
Prior to our experiments on the west coast it was a dictum of fish-culture that 
fish planted in a river would return to it when mature for the purpose of spawning. 
The result of these experiments has been to demonstrate that this instinct of 
nativity, should it really exist, is in this case dominated by other influences, which 
have dispersed the shad planted in the Sacramento widely beyond the limits which 
we had assigned to them, and in the most unexpected direction. 
The cause is probably to be sought in the genial influences of the Japan current, 
which brings the warmth of equatorial Asia to temper the extremes of Arctic 
climate on the southern shore of the Alaskan Peninsula, and, thence sweeping to the 
south, carries tropical heats to the latitude of San Francisco. Repelled on the one 
hand by the low temperature of the great rivers and fringe of coast waters, and 
solicited on the other by the equable and higher temperature of the Japan current, 
the shad have become true nomads, and have broken tie bounds of the hydro- 
graphic area to which we had supposed they would be restricted. Following the 
track of the Asiatic current, and finding more congenial temperatures as they pro- 
gress, it is not unreasonable to expect that some colonies will eventually reach the 
coast of Asia and establish themselves in its great rivers. 
Shad are now found in greatest numbers in the Sacramento and Columbia Rivers, 
where they are of considerable economic value. Owing to the fact that very little 
apparatus specially adapted to their capture is employed, no correct idea of their 
actual abundance in a given stream can be formed. Nearly all the shad thus far 
taken have been obtained in nets operated for salmon or other fish, shad being only 
an incidental element inthe catch. The price received by the fishermen is a good 
criterion of the abundance of the fish. When first taken, shad brought as much as 
$1.20 apound; in 1892 the value in many places was only 2 cents a pound, and in the 
Columbia River at one period the catch was so large and the price so low that the 
fishermen did not go to the trouble of marketing the fish caught. The average price 
on the coast has declined in the past four years from 10 cents per pound in 1889 to 4 
cents in 1892. 
