452 Roosevelt Wild Life Annals 



estimates that a single Pike Perch may eat at least 600 of these Gizzard Shad in a 

 year, and he considers it highly important in making this Shad indirectly of value 

 as a food fish for man. Since the shad feeds largely on algae (see also Tiffany, 

 '21, p. 122), these plants are then made available as a food for man through the 

 Gizzard Shad and the Wall-eyed Pike. Gizzard Shad do not occur in Oneida 

 Lake, according to our findings, but minnows and other fishes there, eaten by the 

 Wall-eyed Pike, feed extensively on minute crustaceans, insects, algae, and other 

 organisms not used as human food ; and no doubt a relation similar to the one 

 discovered by Forbes in the Illinois River, involving minnows and other non-food 

 fishes, exists in Oneida Lake. Important results would undoubtedly come from an 

 intensive study of the Wall-eyed Pike in Oneida Lake, with particular attention 

 given to its food and that of the fishes it eats. By the same method employed by 

 Forbes, Baker ('18, p. 218) has used the few data on the food of Pike Perch in 

 Oneida Lake and therefrom estimated that 31,200 fish are required to feed the 

 Pike Perch there. He acknowledges the meagerness of his data, and his figures 

 to be but a rough estimate. The abundance of minnows and other fishes that are 

 usually small and otherwise unfit for human food and for sport, and useful only 

 as bait or as aquarium specimens, are in a few cases of considerable indirect value 

 in helping to perpetuate the very desirable Pike Perch in the lake. The invertebrate 

 and the plant life in this water (Baker, '18) both jirovide abundant food for these 

 minnows and thus become of indirect use to man. 



Food studies show that Pike Perch feed upon small Yellow Perch in Oneida 

 Lake and elsewhere and are thus of value in keeping down the numbers of these 

 fish, which are so likely to become superabundant in waters with adequate food for 

 them (such as Oneida Lake), often with a consequent reduction in size so as to 

 be too small to interest the angler. Many of these perch thus become replaced by 

 the larger and otherwise more attractive \\^all-eyed Pike. Forbes and Richardson 

 ('09, p. 273) also recognize the Wall-eyed Pike as useful for introduction into 

 waters with small useless fish species. 



It is well known that the flesh of Pike Perch is highly palatable and has a 

 high market value. Leach ('27, p. 4) says of the Pike Perch as a table fish: "The 

 smaller fish are delicious, fried, broiled, or boiled, while the larger ones weighing 

 from 5 to 15 pounds, are excellent when baked. The flesh is firm and well flav- 

 ored, even in the warmest weather. Few fish stand shipment, holding, or freezing 

 better than Pike Perch. It is not so well adapted to .salting as some species, but 

 this is not important, as the demand for it is so great that the supply is always 

 disposed of fresh or frozen. The abdominal cavity is comparatively sin;ill and the 

 head medium, so that little loss occurs in dressing. The bones are somewhat 

 numerous, but they are generally large and easily separated." 



The species is one of the most important commercial fishes of the (M-cat T-akes. 

 Recent figures given by Leach ('27, p. 3) are as follows: 





