170 



Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 



Vol. 27, Art. 2 



of the analysis of data at Urbana. 

 Thompson and three or four other men, 

 working steadily each year through spring, 

 summer, and fall, collected and shipped to 

 Urbana about 90,000 fishes of 90 species, 

 2,400 fish stomachs. 15.000 river mussels 

 belonging to 40 species, 820 collections of 

 small invertebrates, and 500 collections of 

 plankton and algae. 



Samuel Eddy (1927. 1931, 1932) 

 worked on the plankton of Lake Michi- 

 gan and the Sangamon River and on 

 plankton collections from some sinkhole 

 ponds in southern Illinois. 



EARLY MANAGEMENT 

 ATTEMPTS 



ALiny of the early activities in the man- 

 agement of aquatic resources of the 

 United States were based on premises 

 which later research proved to be inac- 

 curate or erroneous. These included such 

 measures as stocking and the protection of 

 fish from human exploitation through re- 

 strictions in the form of fishing seasons, 

 length limits, and creel limits. Toward 

 the end of the last century, James Nevin 

 (1898:18), speaking before the American 

 Fisheries Society, made the following 

 statement: 



Personally I have been on the various 

 spawning grounds of the whole chain of Great 

 Lakes from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Lake 

 Superior during the spawning seasons; and I 

 have many times watched the salmon trout, 

 white fish and waii-eyed pike spawn in their 

 natural way; and I am convinced that only 

 a very small percentage of the eggs so de- 

 posited are fertilized. 



This statement represented the attitude 

 of the hatchery supervisors and most ad- 

 ministrative personnel connected with 

 federal and state agencies dealing with 

 fisheries resources. xAs the spawning 

 grounds of most fishes of the Great Lakes 

 remain relatively unexplored even today, 

 it is doubtful if Nevin was very familiar 

 with them. 



Ideas having no scientific basis often 

 become w'idel\' accepted. For example, al- 

 most everyone has heard that one should 

 wet his hands before handling a fish if 

 he wants it to remain alive after release. 

 Apparenth' this idea originated w-ith 

 G. H. Thomson, Superintendent of the 

 Estes Park Fish Hatcherv, Colorado. 



Thomson had cards printed with the 

 title, "A Plea for the Fish." The cards 

 stated : 



When removing an undersized trout from 

 vour hook, always moisten your hands before 

 grasping the fish ; otherwise the dry hand 

 will remove the slime from the back of the 

 trout, when it is only a question of time until 

 fungus sets in and the fish will die. 



Thomson distributed these cards to 

 residents of all states and of many foreign 

 countries. In 1912 he reported that at 

 the September 21-24, 1908, meeting of 

 the American Fisheries Society in Wash- 

 ington, D. C, the Society "recommended 

 that the various state commissions educate 

 the people by every means in their powder 

 to follow the directions given about wet- 

 ting the hands" (Thomson 1913:171). 

 He reported also that his program was 

 endorsed by 28 fish and game commis- 

 sioners throughout the United States. His 

 idea was so widely disseminated that al- 

 most everyone has heard of it ; yet 

 there is no evidence that any atteinpt 

 was made to test it through scientific 

 experimentation. 



In spite of continued emphasis on arti- 

 ficial propagation, new techniques were 

 gradually discovered and put into use 

 by researchers in the fisheries field, and 

 these laid the foundation for modern 

 thought in management. Borodin (1924) 

 and Barney (1924) called attention to 

 the value of using growth rings on scales 

 and otoliths for determining the age of 

 fishes; Wiebe (1929) proposed the use 

 of fertilizers to increase plankton produc- 

 tion ; Surber (1931) discussed the use of 

 sodium arsenite in the control of aquatic 

 vegetation; Burr (1931) used electrical 

 equipment to stun fish; Markus (1932) 

 investigated the relationship between 

 w^ater temperatures and food digestion in 

 largemouth bass; through tagging and re- 

 covery, Thompson (\933a) studied mi- 

 grations of stream fishes. These and 

 other findings laid the groundwork for 

 modern attack on the problems of fish 

 management. 



MODERN MANAGEMENT 



The modern concept and use of the 

 term "fish management" first appeared 

 about 30 years ago. It was suggested 



