228 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4j 



we lose sight of tliem until they come back full-grown and ready to 

 spawn. As young fish in the river they are the food of the rock or 

 ■striped bass, the white perch, the bass, and other species of predaceous 

 fishes that are found in the streams. When they reach the salt waters 

 of the bay the number of their enemies multiplies. From their birth 

 until their return to our rivers they are preyed upon incessantly by 

 other fish, so that the larger portion of the young fish hatched do not 

 survive their few months' sojourn in fresh waters, and of the remnant 

 which leaves our rivers each season after the heat of summer is over, it 

 is probable that not one in one hundred reaches maturity and returns 

 to the same stream to deposit its eggs and contribute to the perpetua- 

 tion of its species. 



Man's destructive agency in the matter, if we consider only the num- 

 ber captured by him, seems very trivial and insignificant in comparison 

 with the destruction by natural causes over which he can exercise no 

 control. Yet if by natural causes 99 per cent are destroyed before 

 reaching their spawning grounds, man may, by continuing season after 

 season to capture this remnant of 1 per cent, render unproductive 

 and finally destroy the shad fisheries of a river. Even this remnant, 

 if permitted to spawn naturally, would be sufficient to maintain pro- 

 duction and compensate waste or casualties through natural agencies. 

 What has been said of the shad is equally true of the alewife or river 

 herring. Its habits are the same, its geographical range about the same, 

 as that of the shad. In the case of either species it is very certain that 

 present modes and apparatus of fishing, used without legal restriction, 

 will iu the end destroy or render unproductive the shad and herring fish- 

 eries in our rivers. 



PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION FOR RIVER FISHERIES. 



What legislation is necessary to j^rotect our shad and herring fish- 

 eries from spoliation and utter devastation, is a question that has given 

 rise to more discussion, awakened more angry controversy, and occa- 

 sioned greater diversity of legislation than any other question connected 

 with the fisheries. 



As the fish enter our rivers only for the purpose of spawning, the 

 shad and herring fisheries are necessarily prosecuted during the spawn- 

 ing season, and often immediately upon the favorite spawning grounds 

 of the species. How, then, are we to maintain favorable conditions of 

 reproduction without imposing too onerous restrictions upon those en- 

 gaged in these commercial fisheries! 



Ditferent methods have been proposed by different State commis- 

 sioners to accomplish the desired end; but as the river fisheries are 

 under State rather than Federal jurisdiction, it is not material that 

 they should be stated in detail in this connection. 



The waters of the Potomac Eiver lying in the District of Columbia 

 are under the immediate jurisdiction of Congress, and the law prohibit- 



