36 



REPORT OP THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



Delaicare River. — The Delaware has long been the principal shad 

 stream, and notwithstanding a marked decline in the fishing in re- 

 cent years the river still retains its rank. Most of the fishing in 

 Delaware Bay is done by fishcrmen,..living on the river, who meet 

 the migrating shad below the mouth of the river and follow them 

 upstream. The statistics therefore cover the entire industry from 

 the mouth of the river to the upper limit of commercial fishing, in 

 Pike County, Pa. 



The shad fishery of New Jersey is much more important than that 

 of Delaware and Pennsylvania combined, and the most productive 

 grounds are about the mouth of the river, in the vicinity of Bayside. 

 Drift gill nets, 500 to 800 fathoms long, are the principal apparatus 

 used in the bay and lower part of the river, and nearly every fisher- 

 man has a gasoline boat. Below Trenton, 6 seines were used on the 

 New Jersey shore and 4 in Bucks County, Pa.; above Trenton, only 

 seines are employed. At various places on the river, but especially 

 in the neighborhood of Philadelphia and Camden, the fishermen 

 complain of the damage done to the shad run by the pollution of the 

 water hy city and factory Avastes. 



The Delaware River shad fishery in 1910, as shown by the follow- 

 ing condensed table, gave employment to over 1,100 fishermen, with 

 apparatus and other property Avorth nearly a quarter of a million 

 dollars. The catch was 951,250 fish, for which the fishermen re- 

 ceived $402,401. '\Miile the run was said to be larger than for 

 several years, it was nevertheless much less than formerly; as, for 

 instance, in 189G, when the Bureau made a canvass of the river that 

 showed a catch of 2,778,803 shad, with a value of $300,598. The 

 average price received for shad by the fishermen in 1910 was over 

 42 cents apiece, while in 1896 it was less than 11 cents apiece. 



Shad Fisheeiks of Delaware River in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New 

 Jersey in 1910. 



