8 American Fisheries Society 



ished so markedly that Congress took action in regard 

 to it. Several of the states had appointed commissions 

 to care for the fisheries of those particular states, but 

 the American Fish Culture Association— the predecessor 

 of our American Fisheries Society — urged the establish- 

 ment of a national bureau to enquire into the condition 

 of the food fisheries of the United States and to take 

 steps toward their improvement. The great falling off 

 in the shad catch was the main reason advanced for this 

 action, so in 1871 an act was passed creating the office 

 of Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries and directing 

 this officer to prosecute inquiries with the view of ascer- 

 taining whether there had been a diminution in the 

 number of food fishes of the coast and lakes of the United 

 States, and, if so, to what causes the same was due and 

 what steps should be taken to check the decline. It was 

 further provided that the Commissioner should be a civil 

 servant of the Government, of proved scientific and prac- 

 tical acquaintance with the fishes of the coast, and 

 that he should serve without additional compensation. 

 Though no name was mentioned in the act, this meant 

 but one man, and Spencer Fullerton Baird, then Assist- 

 ant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, received 

 the appointment and continued to fill the post until his 

 death in 1887. The collection of statistics as to the fish- 

 eries and the conclusions drawn from them, led directly 

 to the artificial propagation of the more valuable food 

 fishes, and to the success attained by the United States 

 Commission of Fish and Fisheries and its successor, the 

 Bureau of Fisheries, in fish culture, is due very largely 

 the fact that our principal food fishes, and especially the 

 shad, have not become extinct. 



Although it is familiar to all the members of this So- 

 ciety, a review of the life history of the shad is necessary 

 to understand the present situation. The shad is an 

 anadromous fish, and is hatched from eggs deposited far 

 up in the headwaters of the streams. Distance seems to 

 make little or no difference to the spawning fish, pro- 



