50 Tii'cnfy-se'i'nitli Aiuuial Meeting 



is productive of greater hatching results than to take the ova 

 and protect it from nature's enemies, or if there is no alternative 

 for natural spawning by reason of circumstances forbidding 

 the saving of the ova, then it is wise to stop fishing during 

 the spawning period. If, on the other hand, catchmg the spawn- 

 ing fish and protecting their ova during the ova stage results 

 in hatching several hundred young fish where only one would 

 hatch without such protection, then it must be clear that the 

 wisest course is to catch the greatest possible number of spawn- 

 ing breeders ; that, instead of preventing their capture by law, 

 the greatest freedom and encouragement should be given, in 

 order that this wonderful life-saving process may be employed 

 to the greatest possible extent. 



Where open fishing is allowed during the spawning season, 

 and it is practical to save the ova and develop it to the hatching 

 point in hatcheries — as in the case with the trout and whitefish 

 of the Great Lakes — to deliberately close this season against 

 fishing is to assume that the percentage of ovjf hatched in na- 

 ture's wilds is something near the result obtained by intercept- 

 ing the deposit of the ova and shielding it from all forms of nat- 

 ural dangers. Indeed, advocates of a closed spawning season, 

 to be consistent, must regard the wild as superior to protected 

 incubation, for is not the one deliberately chosen to the exclu- 

 sion of the other? And is not non-interference with natural 

 spawning their slogan, and the avowed object for which the 

 season is closed? 



As closed season laws are enacted for the express purpose 

 of allowing natural spawning, let us consider some of the envir- 

 oning conditions into which the ova in nature are thrown. 



The hatching point constitutes the dividing line between two 

 important stages or periods of fish life. During the second 

 stage, that of the fish proper, it is literally true that the big fish 

 eat the little ones and eternal vigilance is the price of existence. 

 Still, almost from their entrance into this period they are able 

 to move about with greater or less facility, and thus to some 

 extent elude their pursuers by seeking a cover or refuge ; and 

 later on they may develop oflfensive or defensive powers. 



Not so, however, with fish life in the first or ovum stage. 

 Possessed of no powers of locomotion, the germs lie inert and 

 helpless, at the mercy of all the enemies of ova life. Whatever 

 dangers environ must be encountered without powers of resist- 

 ence, or means of defense or escape. When lying on the reefs 



