38 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



season can not be interfered with until the sponges are landed, cured, 

 or offered for sale in the United States. The sponges, therefore, must 

 be followed or traced from their beds in the high seas to a point 

 of territorial jurisdiction, a requirement that is usually impossible 

 of enforcement. 



Moreover, the law provided the Department with no machinery 

 for its enforcement. It has been necessary to depend upon the 

 courtesy of the Treasury Department for the personnel required, 

 and no provision has been made for expenses. 



In view of the circumstances narrated, and in the interest of the 

 unimpaired maintenance of the sponge beds, it is recommended that 

 the act of June 20, 1906, be amended to correct its defects and that 

 the Bureau be provided with an inspector, a suitable boat, and funds 

 for the proper enforcement of the law. It is further recommended 

 that the minimum size of sponges which it shall be legitimate to take 

 be established at 5 inches diameter, and if this be done that the 

 close season be curtailed by not exceeding two months. 



EXTENSION OF FISH CULTURE. 



It is again urged that provision be made for the establishment of 

 additional stations for the rescue of fishes from overflowed lands in 

 the Mississippi Valley. Millions of fish now annually left by the 

 receding waters to die of exposure can by this means be saved at 

 small expense. 



The Bureau is of the opinion that a highly important work of the 

 near future will be the stocking of ponds and streams on the farms 

 of the country with hardy species of fish requiring little care or 

 attention and omnivorous as to diet. The several species of catfishes 

 appear to fulfill the requirements more completely than any other 

 fish. They will grow in sluggish and muddy water, they are very 

 tenacious of life, their diet is of wide variety, and as food they 

 are excelled by but few fresh-water fish. While some of the smaller 

 species can be made important additions to the home food supplies 

 of the farms, certain others, particularly the larger ones, are already 

 the basis of important commercial fisheries. For the propagation of 

 both kinds the establishment of a station at some point in the lower 

 Mississippi Valley, preferably near Morgan City, La., is regarded as 

 highly desirable. 



The fish-cultural work in Yellowstone Park has been conducted 

 heretofore with inadequate means as an adjunct to the operation of 

 Spearfish Hatchery, but it is believed that the opportunities in the 

 national park are such as to warrant an independent station. One 

 of the chief difficulties encountered in the efforts to replenish the 

 depleted fisheries of the United States arises from the lack of control 



