Blackford. — The Shad Problem 7 



fornia Fish and Game Commission, reports that they 

 enter the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers during 

 April, May and June. Evermann and Goldsborough* re- 

 port that one was taken at the cannery at Fairhaven, 

 Alaska, about July 1, 1903, and the species has been re- 

 ported from Kussilof, on Cook Inlet. However the fish 

 presents the curious anomaly of being a sea fish known 

 only in fresh or brackish water, for absolutely nothing 

 is known of its life history except at the spawning time. 



The female shad is decidedly larger than the male, and 

 to this characteristic, as well as the fact that the female 

 contains the roe, is due the decline in the number of fe- 

 males as compared with the males. A net with a mesh 

 6 1-2 inches square will permit most of the males to 

 pass, while it will take most of the ripe females. The 

 mature males taken in the fisheries of the Atlantic coast 

 will weigh from V/ 2 to six pounds, averaging about three 

 pounds; while the females will run from three to six 

 pounds, the average of both sexes being a little below five 

 pounds. Stories have come down from the early days of 

 the fishery of shad weighing 11, 12, and even 14 pounds, 

 but if these ever existed they are no longer found ; nine 

 pound shad being now very rare, and ten pound fish be- 

 ing about the maximum. Somewhat larger fish are re- 

 ported from the Pacific side where they occasionally 

 attain a weight of some fourteen pounds and many are 

 taken that weigh from nine to twelve pounds. Within 

 the past few years, fish of this size have grown more 

 rare, and no doubt they will soon come to the level of 

 the Atlantic shad. 



The decline in the size of the fish taken has been ac- 

 companied by a decline in the number of fish comprising 

 the catch until the matter has become of national con- 

 cern. In the early days of American history, the fisher- 

 ies played a large part in the sustenance of the people, 

 but shortly after the Civil War this resource had dimin- 



*B. W. Evermann and E. L. Goldsborough. The Fishes of Alaska. 

 Bulletin of U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, 1906, page 234. 



