Culler. — Fish Rescue Operations 249 



any consideration of the initial cost of construction. The ag- 

 gregate cost of the rescue operations for the fiscal year 1920 

 was $31,000. Following this line of thought, it is surely a 

 conservative estimate to assume that 25 per cent of the fishes 

 may be expected to survive and reach a legal marketable size, 

 with an average weight of not less than 1^^ pounds in two or 

 three years. If they are then placed on the market and sold 

 by the fishermen at the prices prevailing in December, 1919, 

 the salvaged fishes have a prospective value of $6,527,000. 



A rescue crew consists usually of six men and a foreman. 

 A launch is employed in going to and from the field of opera- 

 tions, and the equipment consists of two seines 50 and 75 

 feet long, 6 feet deep of 14-inch mesh, six galvanized iron 

 tubs of 1^ bushels capacity, small dipnets, two tin dippers, 

 and a small flat-bottomed boat, the latter being used in ponds 

 too deep for wading. After a haul has been made, the fish 

 are sorted in the tubs by species and size. The number of fish 

 per tub is ascertained by noting the displacement of the water 

 in the tub, one or more rings having been made on the inside 

 of each tub and the number established by actual count. The 

 count is verified several times during the season, as the fish 

 are in some instances subject to rapid growth. 



Inasmuch as the fish when first taken from the warm wa- 

 ters will not safely stand a long railway journey, those in- 

 tended for distribution are taken to the nearest holding sta- 

 tion where they are hardened for several days in cool running 

 water. While the numbers of fish diverted for supplying ap- 

 plicants in other parts of the country may seem large in the 

 aggregate, they represent less than one per cent of the total 

 collections. Such diversions during the past year amounted 

 to 983,794 miscellaneous fishes. Included in this number are 

 more than 500,000 allotted to the fish commissions of the 

 states bordering the Mississippi River where the Bureau's work 

 is conducted. It is more than probable that many of these fish 

 were replanted in waters connected with the Mississippi River 

 drainage system. 



