THE STURGEON FISHERY OF DELAWARE RIVER AND BAY. 



By John N. Cobb, / 



Agent of the United States Fish Commission. 



The great decline in the catch of sturgeon in American waters has 

 attracted the earnest attention of all who are interested in the fisheries. 

 This decline has not been peculiar to the American fisheries, but is 

 noted ill nearly all countries in which sturgeon fishing is prosecuted. 



The principal sturgeon fisheries of the United States are in Delaware 

 Bay and liiver, the Great Lakes, South Carolina, and Columbia Kiver. 

 The Delaware fishery, of which the present paper treats, exceeds all 

 others. It is carried on from Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey, 

 although the interests of Pennsylvania are very slight. 



Both the common sturgeon {Acipenser s/«rio Linmeus) and the short- 

 nosed sturgeon {Acipenser brevirostris Le^Sueur) are found in the Dela- 

 ware Eiver, but only the former is put to any commercial use there. 

 It attains a large size, a length of 10 feet being not uncommon. A. 

 brevirostris rarely exceeds 3 feet in length, and therefore is not gilled 

 in the large- meshed nets used. Some are probably taken at the sliore 

 seine fisheries along the river and in the shad gill nets. 



HISTORY OF THE FISHERY. 



The earliest settlers to this country were es[)ecially struck at the 

 immense numbers of sturgeon seen in the Delaware, and their letters to 

 the home folks in England and Germany contain frequent references 

 testifying to their wonderment. Mr. William E. Meehan, in "Fi-sh, 

 Fishing, and Fisheries of Pennsylvania,"* writes as follows: 



William Pcnu made special note of this lisli. Peter. Kalm speaks of it, aucl others 

 tell of its capture and great size. Until comparatively a few years ago sturgeons 

 were still plentiful. Men not yet 60 years old say that even after they had ])as8cd 

 their majority it was not an uncommon sight to see several sturgeon during a single 

 trip between Camden and Philadelphia, jumping in the river. 



Mr. Samuel Williams, a resident of Burlington, N. J., now in his eighty-fourth year, 

 says that when he was a boy on one occasion he went with his father on a shad-fishing 

 trip in the lower Delaware and during it he saw thousands of this huge fish. Once 

 on this trip his father and companions were compelled to take their nets in with 

 great speed in order to save them from utter destruction; as it was, many fathoms 

 were badly torn by this fish. The sturgeon passed their boats in such vast numbers 

 that in a little while the occupants had killed and secured eleven. This was aa 

 many as they could take home and, as the run continued, they slew many more on 

 the jirinciple that it was a fish not only of scarcely any value, but was actually a 

 nuisance in the river on account of the damage caused the nets. 



* Report of the State [Penua.] Commissioners of Fisheries for the years 1892, 1893, 

 1894, pp. 257-392. 1895. 



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