178 



Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 



Vol. 27, Art. 2 



stocking on populations of fishes. This 

 work is centered at the Fin 'n' Feather 

 Club near Dundee. 



At the Eighteenth North American 

 Wildlife Conference held in Washington, 

 D. C, in 1953, Max McGraw, Presi- 

 dent of the North American Wildlife 

 Foundation, suggested the development of 

 a fisheries research unit at the Fin 'n' 

 Feather Club. It was agreed that the 

 McGraw Foundation (with the assist- 

 ance of the Illinois Department of Con- 

 servation) would develop a research unit 

 of at least 15 1-acre ponds and provide 

 space for laboratory and offices in the 

 Fin 'n' Feather Lodge. When this would 

 be accomplished, the laboratory and pond 

 unit would be assigned to the North 

 American Wildlife Foundation, which in 

 turn would assign the use of the facility 

 to the Illinois Natural History Survey 

 and the Illinois Department of Conserva- 

 tion for fisheries research. Some progress 

 had been made in physical plant con- 

 struction by 1956, and on February 1 of 

 that year David Homer Buck was em- 

 ployed by the Natural History Survey to 

 give immediate supervision to the project. 

 Soon after, Maurice A. Whitacre, biolo- 

 gist with the Department of Conserva- 

 tion, was assigned to this program to 

 work with Dr. Buck. At the beginning 

 of the 1958 season 11 ponds were ready 

 for use. Eight other ponds are in various 

 stages of construction, and as these are 

 completed they will be stocked and added 

 to the units in operation. 



A second program, already begun, has 

 to do with studies of the biochemistry 

 of fishes. A chemical laboratory was de- 

 veloped in conjunction with the aquarium 

 laboratories in the Natural Resources 

 Building at Urbana, and Robert C. Hilti- 

 bran was employed on May 1, 1957, to 

 begin biochemical investigations. Hilti- 

 bran was forced to pioneer in this field 

 because little research had been done on 

 fish biochemistry. He has begun by 

 studying the "normal" enzyme systems 

 of tile bluegill, Lcpornis niacrochirus Ra- 

 finesque. Once the "normal" enzyme sys- 

 tems are known, Hiltibran will measure 

 the action of various chemicals on these 



systems : waste products from commercial 

 chemical processes and substances applied 

 to aquatic areas for the control of noxious 

 animals and plants. From these studies 

 he may be able to suggest methods of re- 

 ducing the toxicity of these chemicals to 

 fishes and other aquatic organisms. 



Prior to 1934 Wilbur M. Luce (now 

 Professor of Zoology, University of Illi- 

 nois) and David H. Thompson developed 

 a method for stripping and fertilizing 

 sunfish eggs, which they used to produce 

 hybrids between species of these centrar- 

 chids. Luce raised many of these sunfish 

 to maturity, and Thompson recognized 

 that two of the hybrids were similar to 

 fish pictured by Forbes & Richardson 

 (1908) as being valid species. Recently 

 we have revived the technique of artificial 

 insemination of sunfish eggs in order to 

 explore the possibility of developing hy- 

 brids for use in fish management. In 

 1957 William F. Childers produced 

 viable fry from all possible combinations 

 of crosses of bluegills, redears, green sun- 

 fish, and warmouths. Some of these com- 

 binations appear to be superior to parent 

 types. 



It is probable that within the next few 

 decades great advances will be made in 

 the management of fish populations for 

 sport and commercial uses. Research 

 basic to this management may lead to the 

 discovery of ecological factors which con- 

 trol the expansion of populations of im- 

 portant sport species, such factors as 

 have already been found for the large- 

 mouth and smallmouth basses. Adjust- 

 ments of these factors may be, to some 

 extent, applicable to most natural waters, 

 but they probably will be more practical 

 in artificial waters and in controllable 

 natural waters. It seems reasonable to as- 

 sume that progress will be made in en- 

 vironment control until waters can be 

 made to produce crops of selected plants 

 and animals much as terrestrial habitats 

 can be made to produce wheat, rice, 

 swine, and cattle. The development of 

 water management may not only give 

 ways to control the kinds and numbers of 

 fishes but also to control the individual 

 steps in the food chains of fishes. 



