Denmead. — The Chesapeake Bay 79 



Fish Refuges. 



Places where fish can spawn undisturbed by the netters is 

 not a new proposition, but it has been tried with such success in 

 several instances in Maryland that I am compelled to give you 

 in detail the history of one of our successes along this line. This is 

 one of the subjects in which I hope to interest you, namely: the 

 experiment of prohibiting all netting in the Severn River, a tide- 

 water tributary of the bay. Many years ago the fish had prac- 

 tically been cleaned out of this beautiful river by all kinds of nets, 

 and it was not very hard to get the legislature to pass a law barring 

 the netter. Two years of re-stocking, however, and the abolish- 

 ment of the net, brought the fish back into this river in such 

 quantities that the commercial fishermen made a concerted 

 effort to repeal the law, and get into the river with their nets. 

 Being defeated in this, they tried violating the law. The increase 

 of fish had been so remarkable, however, that public opinion was 

 against a repeal and the violators, and at the following session of 

 the legislature the law was considerably strengthened. Violators 

 were apprehended, convicted and fined, and they then decided 

 it was wise to leave the river alone. The fish have continued to 

 increase, notably the striped bass and white perch. 



Now the beauty of this experiment was that it not only 

 increased the supply of fish within the river, but actually served 

 as a feeder for the waters of the bay surrounding the mouth of the 

 river. In time this extended many miles away, thereby materially 

 benefitting the commercial fisherman by providing a safe nursery 

 for food fish until they were of marketable size and there were 

 larger quantities outside in the bay where he could fish. 



This experiment, or plan, for it is beyond the experimental 

 stage, has also been tried in two other Maryland estuaries, namely, 

 Dundee Creek and Sue's Creek, with very satisfactory results. 

 It is well worth while and we hope to see the time very shortly 

 when we have such refuges in every county in Maryland. 



Federal Control of Migratory Fish. 



The other point I wish to emphasize is the necessity of some 

 control, other than state control, over fish which winter in the 

 sea and pass through one or more states to reach their spawning 



