Parsons. — Fisheries of the Chesapeake 21 



Perhaps none of the agencies which operate to pre- 

 vent the shad from ascending the rivers as freely as for- 

 merly, can be entirely remedied, but present conditions 

 can be greatly improved. 



Some of the agencies which with us are preventing 

 shad from reaching their former spawning grounds, are 

 the following: 



1. Dams have been constructed across some streams, 

 completely blocking the passage to the spawning grounds 

 above and effective fish ladders have not yet been pro- 

 vided. 



2. The sewerage from certain cities has not only so 

 polluted the nearby waters as to prevent some of these 

 fish from going through it to the spawning grounds 

 above, but it destroys much of their spawn. Much 

 spawn is also destroyed by washings from cultivated 

 fields, waste from manufacturing plants and by the saw- 

 dust dumped into the rivers from saw mills. 



3. Extensive pound net fisheries near the mouths of 

 certain rivers, and stake nets in the rivers, have acted in 

 the nature of dams and have doubtless been more ef- 

 fective in preventing the shad from reaching their spawn- 

 ing grounds than all other agencies combined. 



Little effort was made by either Maryland or Vir- 

 ginia until recently to regulate the setting of these nets, 

 and they were set in the bay and in the rivers in such a 

 manner, and in such numbers as to almost block the en- 

 trance to the rivers and the rivers themselves. They 

 were extended into the channels to such distances as to 

 seriously interfere with navigation, and it became neces- 

 sary for the War Department to establish lines in the bay 

 and rivers beyond which no net could be set. This action 

 has been very beneficial in keeping open the deeper chan- 

 nels and thus affording an unobstructed continuous pas- 

 sage from the deep waters of the bay to the spawning 

 grounds in the rivers. These passages are, however, very 

 narrow in places and further relief of this kind is needed. 



Virginia is the more serious offender in respect to 

 these nets, but Maryland contributed her part to the de- 



