Fish Culturists' Association. 23 



AQUACULTURE AND FISH PROTECTION. 



BY SAMUEL WILMOT, NEWCASTLE, ONTARIO. 



In submitting this paper, on some of the points in fish culture, to the 

 American Fish Culturists' Association, now assembled, 1 shall endeavor 

 to be as brief as possible ; 3'et there are so many interesting subjects 

 connected with the science of aquaculture that it will be almost impossi- 

 ble to control the matter without affecting its general interests. My 

 object at this time, however, will be to touch upon the importance of the 

 science as a whole, and to show why there should be judicious laws passed 

 to preserve fish at certain seasons, and also endeavor to answer the 

 question so frequently put by the skepticall}- inclined, " AVh}' resort to 

 artificial breeding of fish ; and why not allow them to breed in their own 

 natural wa}'?" 



When we consider the importance of this new branch of industry, both 

 as a means of producing cheap and wholesome food, as well as individ- 

 ual and general wealth among the people among whom it has been 

 introduced, it is gratifying to find that a knowledge of its principles is 

 gradually becoming more and more generally diffused, so that we ma}' 

 safel}" look forward to the time when no countr}' can be found wherein 

 the science of pisciculture is totalh' neglected. 



Independent of the pleasure and instruction which fish culture, on a 

 small scale, has afforded to amateurs and others who have employed their 

 time and means in adding another luxury- to their tables, much profit has 

 been realized b}' utilizing springs and small streams of water on private 

 properties. And in both the old and the new world we may see that 

 the various governments have chosen the most scientific and practical 

 men of the da}' to find means whei'eby the vast areas of water, which 

 cover three-fourths of the earth's surface, ma}- be made to produce 

 inexhaustible supplies of food and riches ; so that, through man's intelli- 

 gence and industry, aquaculture ma}' become the successful rival of its 

 sister art, agriculture. 



The introducing and acclimatizing of many of the better and scarcer 

 kinds of fish has been achieved through the instrumentalit}' of this new 

 agent. It is now an indisputable fact that some of the kinds of fish 

 that were transported in the egg state from Scotland to Australia and 

 New Zealand are found to be acclimatized to the waters of the Southern 

 Hemisphere, where the}' were hitherto wholly unknown. 



In a similar manner fish fry and eggs from the waters of the Atlantic 



