192 



REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



[4] 



up the station for the season, having collected 19,000,000 shad eggs in 

 all. The previous experience of the spawn-takers was shown in the 

 handling of these eggs, the losses being much less than in former years. 



PENNING SHAD. 



On April 28, four shad (tw^o males and two females) were penned in 

 a live-box. One female died on the 29th and one was spawned on the 

 30tli, the eggs not coming up at all. On May 2 the two males died, 

 having lived six days in confinement. On the 3d of May two male and 

 two female shad were put in a live-box. Two females and one male 

 died on May 4 and one male on May 7. It was then concluded to wait 

 until the end of the season and try to keep the males alive; but 

 when that time came there were none of either sex. The shad taken 

 at the fort are generally in pairs, so that there is little or no necessity 

 for keeping them penned. The result of penning these shad leads to 

 the same conclusion as last year : that the males can be kept for five or 

 six days in good condition, but that the females invarir^bly die after a 

 few days' confinement. 



Penning the male shad at the eud of the season, when most of the 

 seines have cut out, is a very good idea, and will save many million 

 eggs in the future, the meshes of the gill-net being so large as to catch 

 nothing but females. 



The males can be transported from jjlace to place in live-boxes, if 

 necessary ; still, a giller, if he finds a spawning female, can easily make 

 a signal, and at any ordinary distance it can be brought to the station 

 in the course of a half-hour; the eggs can be taken and impregnated 

 even after an hour has elapsed. 



Commenced hauling the seine on April 9, and during the month of 

 April 1,230 shad were caught; during the month of May, ],2J1 shad 

 and 12,791 herring. The greatest catch of shad in a single day was on 

 May 7, when 129 were taken ; the greatest catch of herring, 2,800 in 

 number, occurred on May 8. Finding the herring to be nuuierous at 

 this time, a back of 13 fathoms, 1-inch mesh, was added to the seine on 

 May 14, but the fish had gone by the time we were ready. 



The catch of the seine, compared with last year, stands as follows : 



1883. 



Shad 



Herring . . . 

 Shad eggs 



983 

 24, 226 



838, 000 



1884. 



Shad 2,441 



Herring 12, 791 



Shad eggs 6, 000, 000 



The 6,000,000 eggs which were taken in this small seine cost the 

 Commission, exclusive of -seine and outfit, the sum of $114.44, $63 in 

 wages and $51.44 for hire of the seine-boat. Had these eggs been fur- 

 nished at the usual rate of $20 per million, they alone would have cost 

 the Commission $120. In addition to the above, the seine furnished au 



