120 American Fisheries Society 



I was asked by one fisherman on one occasion to go out with him, as he 

 wished to show me something. I went out in the boat with him about two 

 miles on the spawning ground where he had left a lid over a pound net. It 

 was on the twentieth day of May of this year. After he had dropped his 

 pound net, he raised the lid, and I saw thousands and thousands of little 

 shad from the moss and from the accumulation around the nets, hiding there 

 from other fish. So we found that this is another good idea on the spawning 

 grounds. They are going to put lids out there hereafter until the shad fry 

 get old enough to protect themselves. I make these remarks merely to 

 show something of our conservation laws, of which we are very proud in 

 North Carolina, and to indicate something about the prospects of the shad 

 industry in Albemarle Sound. 



Mr. Snyder: When I made those remarks I was not aware that North 

 Carolina had placed any restriction on the nets in Albemarle Sound. Some 

 years ago we wanted a restriction placed on those nets on the spawning 

 beds. After they made the restriction and permitted the fishermen to set 

 about three or four hundred yards of nets and stay there by them, we had 

 the good will of everyone on the place. Prior to that, the fish hatchery got 

 less than a million eggs a year from gillers, but after that we ran it up to 

 over a hundred million eggs a year. The good will of the fishermen was 

 obtained and every fisherman co-operated in getting eggs. Later, I am 

 told, this good will was lost. 



Mr. Wm. C. Adams, of Massachusetts: We have had the shad question 

 and certain of these questions discussed year in and year out for a long time. 

 We are willing to do almost anything in Massachusetts — to spend any 

 reasonable amount of money — if we can get co-operation from those local- 

 ities where shad, comparatively speaking, are reasonably abundant, to do 

 something of a constructive sort to populate our waters again with this 

 fish. In looking back over the efforts of all hands interested in the last few 

 3'ears, I have a feeling that we are working along the long distance lines that 

 will accomplish this result. This brings up one phase of our work — not only 

 of the American Fisheries Society, but the other allied societies — and it 

 seems to me that we ought to lay out some kind of extended program that 

 will involve four or five, or even more, years of constructive effort. When 

 I say this I do not mean to reflect in any way on the efforts of the past, 

 and especially on the constructive efforts of the Bureau of Fisheries as put 

 forth, but there is a great chance here for interest and co-operation and for 

 co-operation with the Bureau of Fisheries. If, in working out such a pro- 

 gram, it seems advisable to make the Bureau of Fisheries an agent to bring 

 this thing about, we should get more complete co-operation with the states 

 interested in this program, and the Bureau of Fisheries, so that we can lay 

 out a plan that will get us salutary results. 



As far as Massachusetts is concerned, we have the money and we have 

 the desire, and we will be glad to back up any agency that will take hold 

 of this thing and work it out. I believe that this Society can be a tremen- 

 dous factor in that work, but it must be along the line of a permanent pro- 

 gram placed in the hands of responsible agents, with a systematic checking 

 up to see that eventually we get the results. 



