SYMPOSIUM OX COXSERVATIOX 43 



mately gV^ million pounds in 1894. nearly 6}^ million pounds in 

 1899, and about 6' 4 million pounds in 1908, — a loss of 29 per cent 

 between 1894 and 1899, and of 7 per cent between 1899 and 1908. 



The number of men employed during this period increased from 

 1,653 to 4.359, about 27^ times as many being engaged in fishing 

 in 1908 as in 1894 ; and the investment in fishing equipment in- 

 creased in the same period more than three and one-half times — 

 from $156,000 to $553,000. That is. while fishing operations in- 

 creased from two and one-half times to three and one-half 

 times, and the product of European carp was multiplied over 

 twenty-five times, the product of the bottom-feeding food fishes 

 native in these waters fell off 29 per cent during the period before 

 the drainage canal v.-as opened — a period coincident with that of 

 the most rapid multiplication of the carp. This can only mean, 

 it seems to me, that under the stimulus of fishing operations due 

 to the rapidly growing importance of this exotic fish, the number 

 of native fishes of similar habit is being rapidl\" reduced. The 

 yield of buffalo was, in 1908, 52 per cent of that for 1894; that 

 of the fresh-water drum, or sheepshead, was 60 per cent ; of 

 eels. 74 per cent ; of suckers, 67 per cent. The catfish yield 

 diminished 19 per cent for the first five years, and then increased 

 30 per cent for the next nine, — a net gain of 4 per cent, comparing 

 1908 with 1894. 



Furthermore, the principal game fishes have also fallen off 

 materially in yield, with the exception of the black bass, whose 

 product increased about 6 per cent for each year of the first period 

 and 36 per cent each year of the last. The sunfishes and the 

 croppies, on the other hand, increased their product an average 

 of 2S per cent for each of the first five years and of 26 per cent 

 for each year of the last nine. Their rate of reproduction seems 

 sufficient, under the new conditions, to hold them up under the 

 new drain of excessive fishing for carp. These species all breed 

 in shallow water and feed mainly on crustaceans, insect larvae, 

 and other minor forms of animal life, and their breeding grounds 

 and feeding grounds have been enormously extended by the rise 

 in river levels and the greater expansion and longer continuance 

 of the overflow consequent upon the opening of the canal. More- 

 over, most of them select nesting places, makes nests, and care 

 for their eggs and young, and hence bring to maturity a compara • 

 tively large percentage of each new generation. 



Another important fact obtained from a comparison of our 

 census data is the enormous and destructive increase of mussel- 



