Rooscz'clt Wild Life Annals 



INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



The present report on the fish of Oneida Lake is part of a comprehensive 

 plan devoted to the stud_v of the fish and fisheries of these waters, and is the 

 result of special field studies and collections made by several persons and covering 

 a period of years. It was begun by the senior author in 1914 and carried on 

 more extensively with the assistance of the junior author and others, during the 

 summers of 1915-1917. while in 1921 some studies of the fish of the lake in 

 winter and in spring were conducted. A brief survey of the shore fishes was made 

 in September 1927, by ]Mr. \\'ilford A. Dence, Professor T. L. Hankinson and 

 Dr. Charles E. Johnson. 



The major objective of these investigations was to make a contribution 

 toward a system of fish cultural management for the lake. The detailed results 

 of several special studies on the molluscan food of the fishes of Oneida Lake 

 have already been published by Baker ('16), who later ('18) made an intensive 

 quantitative study of the productivity of the macroscopic invertebrate fish food in 

 the shallow water of Lower South Bay, which is on the south shore of the lake. 

 Still later. Baker assisted Professor Henry S. Pratt in making a study of the 

 worm parasites of the fishes of the lake, the results of which were published by 

 Pratt ('23) and Van Cleave ('23). A preliminary list of the fish was published 

 ('16) by the present authors. Intensive field studies by the Roosevelt Station 

 staff were then interrupted by similar investigations demanding attention in the 

 Palisades Interstate Park, in the Allegany State Park, Erie County, and in 

 Cranberry Lake in the Adirondacks. Considerable work had already been done 

 in the preparation of this report, but since the two authors severed their connection 

 with the Roosevelt Wild Life Station, a special efifort has been made to get this 

 progress report in shape for publication. The limited time available necessitated 

 considerable abbreviation of the original plan, although an eflort was made to 

 bring the accounts of the various species reasduably up to date. 



Too often in the past, fish cultural policies have been worked out upon 

 inadequate data, not even using those ahx'ady recorded, because of their relative 

 inaccessibility and the time and exertion required to assemble them. To aid in 

 the execution of the present plan, the following detailed outline was prepared for 

 each of the 59 species of fish, and an eflfort was made to bring together the most 

 important facts regarding their life histories, habits, ecology and economics, and 

 their status in Oneida Lake so far as learned in the course of the survey. Each 

 species is treated under the following headings. 



