14 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



With the absence of the usual spring freshets in the upper Missis- 

 sippi Kiver, and the unprecedently low water stages which made 

 navigation impossible, no rescue operations could be undertaken at 

 the field stations operated in connection with the Manchester station. 

 Conditions on the Illinois River Avere more favorable, and large col- 

 lections of black bass, crappie, sunfish, and catfish were made from 

 overflow waters and furnished for distribution. The output ma- 

 terially exceeded that of the previous year. 



At the Helena (Ark.) and Rosedale (Miss.) stations, the latter 

 operated for the first time in 1911, the number of fish furnished for 

 distribution was small, but large numbers were transferred from the 

 levee pits to the open waters of the river, and this is regarded as one 

 of the most important features of the work. 



In October a carload shipment of lobsters and oysters^ previously 

 assembled at the Boothbay Harbor station, was made to the Pacific 

 coast. The consignment, consisting of 15 barrels of oysters and 

 1,940 lobsters, nearly two-thirds of them females, arrived at Seattle in 

 excellent condition, notwithstanding the warm weather encountered 

 en route. Fully 75 per cent of the lobsters were lost, however, owing 

 to the necessity of towing them a full day's journey on an open scow 

 in an incessant rain in order to reach Port Ludlow, in Puget Sound, 

 where the survivors were liberated. Sentiment in favor of the 

 Bureau's efforts toward the acclimatization of the lobster in Pacific 

 coast waters is evidenced by the recent enactment by the Oregon 

 Legislature of a law prohibiting lobster fishing in the waters of that 

 State for a period of five years. 



SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE FISH-CULTURAL WORK. 



West coast salmon. — The superintendent of the California stations 

 again calls attention to the enormous destruction of young salmon in 

 the Sacramento River through the medium of irrigation canals and 

 the attacks of black bass during the migration of the salmon to salt 

 water. One of the canals referred to is 85 feet wide at the bottom, 

 and as the fi-y follow the current in their descent of the river large 

 numbers are carried into the canal by the inflowing water and are 

 left stranded on adjacent lands. It is understood the construction 

 of other dams is contemplated in the near future, and unless the fry 

 are planted below the intake or some effective method of screening 

 is resorted to it will be impossible to maintain the present run of 

 salmon in the Sacramento River. The true solution of the problem 

 would be the erection of a hatchery sufficiently large to accommodate 

 all Chinook eggs collected at the Baird, Mill Creek, and Battle 

 Creek stations at some desirable point below the intake of the irriga- 

 tion canals and where the fry would not be subjected to the attacks 

 of predatoiy fishes. 



