110 Fortieth Annual Meeting 



The latest government statistics respecting the quantity 

 and value of fresh-water game fishes sent to market in the 

 country show that the annual catch amounts to fifty-five 

 milHon pounds valued at more than two millions of dollars. 

 It is well known, however, that these figures do not, by any 

 means, represent the real value of such fishes to the country, 

 since the numbers taken by anglers are not accounted for. 

 The catch of game fishes for sport is very large and the 

 value of some of our northern states of good angling 

 waters is well recognized. 



It is claimed that more than 130,000 persons visit the 

 State of Maine every year on vacation, to fish or to hunt. 

 These summer visitors bring into Maine from six to twelve 

 millions of dollars a year, or more than thirty per cent of the 

 total value of all farm crops raised in Maine. 



Many of the northern states, notably Michigan, are 

 visited in summer by legions of tourists, largely on account 

 of the good angling to be had in their waters, and the lakes 

 of all America have become summer resorts for an impor- 

 tant proportion of the people. 



The time allotted to me will not permit of more than this 

 hasty glance at the conservation work of our splendid 

 national and state fishery departments. Enough fish fry 

 go into the water annually to make the finest of commercial 

 fishing and angling in a very few years — were our streams 

 and lakes protected from pollution, and otherwise conserved 

 in accordance with their importance to our civilization. 



DISCUSSION 



Mr. Frank N. Clark, Northville, Mich. : Some twelve or fifteen 

 years ago, at our Niagara meeting, I presented a paper a little along the 

 line of Dr. Townsend's paper — touching upon that line, at least — and I 

 have been a great enthusiast since that time, not in preparing anything 

 further but in reading, studying and thinking. 



I think that the time has come for this Society in some way to put 

 itself on record, perhaps somewhat as we did two or three years ago, 

 in regard to the international regulation of fisheries. I really think 

 that if the Society could take some action by resolution that could be 

 scattered broadcast it might do something in the way of encouraging 



