XXXVI REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



On the Great Lakes the collection of white-fish eggs was practically 

 limited to Lake Erie, owing to restrictive laws passed by the States of 

 Michigan and Wisconsin, prohibiting the capture of fish during the 

 spawning season. Following the same lines of the previous year, 

 arrangements were made not only for collecting eggs from commercial 

 fishermen, but 12,785 adult fish were penned, which produced over 

 102,000,000, making a total collection of 185,454,000, an increase of 

 72,000,000 over the previous season. 



The lake-trout work on Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron was 

 conducted as usual, and resulted in the distribution of 9,500,000 fry in 

 those waters. During the early spring the collection of ])ike perch eggs 

 was undertaken not only on Lake Erie, but also on Saginaw Bay, 

 Michigan, and on the Missisquoi River, Vermont. On Lake Erie the 

 season's work was very satisfactory, 493,000,000 eggs being obtained. 

 All of these were hatched and planted in Lake Erie, except 24,000,000 

 transferred to Cape Vincent Station and 41,030,000 to Alpena. There 

 is little doubt but that with the experience gained on the Missisquoi 

 River and in Saginaw Bay very successful work can be accomplished 

 in those fields in the future. 



During the season numerous experiments were carefully undertaken 

 to determine a method to prevent adhesion of fish eggs during artificial 

 hatching, and it was decided that the use of swamp muck was advisable 

 where large numbers of eggs were to be handled. 



Marine fish-cultural work was confined to Woods Hole and Gloucester 

 stations on the coast of Massachusetts, and embraced the collection and 

 hatching of eggs of the cod, flat-fish, and lobster. The cod eggs were 

 collected at Plymouth and Kittery by spawn-takers stationed on sailing 

 vessels fishing from those ports and from brood-fish collected during 

 the fall months by the schooner Grampus, and resulted in the liberation 

 of 208,000,000 fry along the coast. 



The flat-fish work at Woods Hole was interfered with materially by 

 unseasonable weather during the latter part of February, but from the 

 collections made in the vicinity of Woods Hole and East Greenwich, 

 E. L, over 52,000,000 fry were hatched and planted in those vicinities* 



In the early spring the lobster work was taken up on the New Eng- 

 land coast and arrangements were made for collecting egg-bearing 

 lobsters from Rockland, Me., to Rhode Island. The eggs from above 

 Cape Cod were hatched at Gloucester and those below at Woods Hole. 

 , Through the active interest taken by the commissioner of sea and shore 

 fisheries of the State of Miine and by employing an additional steam 

 vessel and spawn-takers our collections in this section were materially 

 increased, and notwithstanding the fact that the catch of lobsters was 

 no greater than the previous year 77,390,000 eggs were handled at 

 Gloucester and 44,45S,000 at Woods Hole, which yielded 110,491,000 

 fry. These were planted at suitable points along the coast from Rock- 

 land to Long Island Sound. Although this fishery is apparently steadily 

 declining, judging by the numbers of lobsters taken by the fishermen 



