548 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



THE DISAPPEARING SHAD 



While I believe it Avill be generally 

 agreed that it is economically unwise to 

 permit fish as good as herring to be 

 ground into fertilizer, it is not more 

 wrong than those practices by which our 

 waters are being robbed of that splendid 

 delicious food fish, the shad. The 

 Chesapeake basin affords such a strik- 

 ing example of the impending fate of 

 this valuable fish when frequenting wa- 

 ters flowing through two or more 

 States, that I shall confine my observa- 

 tions to those waters. 



Before pointing out the pound-fool- 

 ish policy of the fisherman toward this 

 excellent market fish, let me explain 

 that not many years ago so populous 

 were the waters of the Chesapeake with 

 the shad that large portions of this 



toothsome fish were to be had in season, 

 at even the cheapest eating houses in 

 Baltimore. Families purchased the 

 male and female shad at prices ranging 

 from twenty to forty cents apiece. So 

 excessively has its price increased that 

 many of the cheaper eating houses do 

 not now sell shad, while families pur- 

 chasing the fish are compelled to pay 

 from forty cents to one dollar and 

 twenty-five cents per fish. 



\Yhat is the explanation? 



If you enter the waters of the Ches- 

 apeake from the Atlantic Ocean and 

 proceed up the Bay, you will find run- 

 ning out from the Virginia shores for 

 mile after mile, a vast maze of nets, 

 some extending as far as eight or ten 

 miles toward the center of the Bay. 

 These nets completely honeycomb the 

 favorite path of the shad as they come 



A QUICK CATCH. 



THIS EXPERIMENTAL CATCH OF COD AND HALIBUT WAS TAKEN IN TWENTY MINUTES ON A NEW 



"BANK" OFF THE COAST OF ALASKA. 



