REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 29 



country, is now conducted chiefly with steamers in the north Pacific 

 and Arctic oceans, and is an expensive, uncertain, and often unremu- 

 nerative business. The value of the baleen, blubber oil, and sperm oil 

 taken has been less than $900,000, and there is no reason to believe 

 that the fishery will ever show any permanent improvement. 



The anadromous tishes of the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards — the 

 salmons, the shad, the alewives, the striped bass, the perches, etc. 

 have come to the streams in abundance, and represent $15,000,000 of 

 income to the fishermen. The run of Atlantic salmon in the spring 

 of 1905 was the largest in a number of years, and is generally attrib- 

 uted to artificial propagation, as natural reproduction is now almost 

 suspended. The shad fishery was poor in the rivers, but good in the 

 ba} T s and along the outer shores. The salmon pack on the Pacific coast 

 in 1904, aggregating over 2,800,000 cases, was somewhat less than in 

 the previous year and very materially less than in 1902 and 1901. The 

 decrease was in part due to the growing utilization of the catch in 

 other ways than by canning, but also represented a decrease in the run 

 of fish in two important regions — Alaska and Puget Sound. In the 

 Sacramento River there was a noteworthy increase in the abundance 

 of salmon, while in the Columbia River a larger catch was made at the 

 expense of the future supply. 



The fisheries of the Great Lakes have yielded over $2, Too, 000, 

 and in general are in a satisfactory condition. The lake trout, lake 

 herring, and pike perch have occurred in their usual abundance, but 

 the whitefish has decreased, notwithstanding most active fish-cultural 

 work. . 



The sponge fishery, confined to the coast of Florida, has special 

 interest at this time because of the efforts of the Bureau to perfect a 

 method of cultivation for maintaining the supply. The yield has con- 

 tinued to fall below that of previous 3-ears, and owing to the absence 

 in the markets of desirable sizes the price has reached a higher point 

 than ever before. The catch on the "key grounds" has been very 

 small for several years, and the spongers attribute the fact to the 

 prevalence of cloud}' water, but there is little doubt that it is in large 

 measure due to actual exhaustion of the grounds. Unquestionably 

 there are places where the water rarely clears and on which a large 

 catch could be made under favorable conditions, but the turbidity of 

 the Mater in these places is no new thing and should not be cited 

 as the cause of the continued small catch in the key region. On the 

 "bay grounds" also the catch has been light for several years, owing 

 to the depletion of the shoal-water grounds and the prevalence of 

 unfavorable conditions which prescribed or interfered with the opera 

 tions offshore. The limit of possibility of taking sponges by the 

 ordinary method of hooking is reached in a depth of between 10 and 

 50 feet; but it is known that there are good sponges in greater depths 



