OUR VANISHING FOOD FISH 



551 



and the other on the Susquehanna The fisheries along the Santa Cata- 

 River. lina Islands decreased more than ] ."> 



The figures of these stations for the per cent in twenty years, and conditions 



past three seasons are as follows : 



for a time were seriously menacing to 



Potomac Fishery.*-- 1912, 88,727,000; the fish food supply of southern Cali- 

 1913, 30,913,000; 1914, 29,808,000. fornia. 



Susquehanna Fishery. "\ 1912, 12,- 

 175,000; 1913, 6,861,000; 1914, 2,- 

 367,000. 



OTHER EVIDENCE. 



The same record of unreasoning de- 

 struction is reported from nearly every 

 coast State. 



The New England States lament the 

 disappearance of their salmon, once 

 taken in abundance on the south side of 

 Cape Cod. In the Connecticut and 

 Merrimac rivers that fish is practically 

 destroyed. 



The striped bass has almost entirely 

 disappeared from the rivers of New 

 England, although they were taken in 

 great numbers by the early colonists in 

 that country. 



The smelt has become commercially 

 extinct. 



Only a few of the shad remain, 

 although that fish was once in such 

 abundance that the Puritans spread 

 them upon their land as fertilizer. 



Approximately, the same record is 

 duplicated in the southern coast States. 



From the Gulf coast comes a repeti- 

 tion of the same story, the unbridled 

 destruction by man having almost de- 

 populated the waters of their most val- 

 uable food fish. 



On the Pacific coast we hear the echo 

 of like complaint. The State of Ohio had from early 



About ten years ago the leaping tuna times permitted net fishing without reg- 

 or horse mackerel, which is one of the ulations. A result of the lack of reg- 

 most important fishes in Europe in the ulations was the placing of nets in Lake 

 Mediterranean Sea, was so common Erie for almost interminable distances, 

 during the summer months off Santa One line of nets at Sandusky extended 

 Catalina Island, California, that they a distance of ten miles from the shore, 

 would be taken by the ton, not only in As a consequence of this indiscriminate 

 nets, but on hand lines. The favorite net fishing the whitefish, the most 

 spawning grounds of these fish, as well valuable fish in Lake Erie, decreased 

 as those of many other valuable game over 80 per cent between 1885 and 1903. 

 fishes, was in the kelp in the smooth 

 waters which surround the Santa Cata- 

 lina and San Clements Islands. As a No more striking illustration of the 

 result of unrestricted netting, they be- profligacy of American fishermen can 

 came less year after year, until they be found than that of the history of the 

 were almost destroyed. sturgeons. For many years these large, 



* The Potomac Fishery is at Bryan Point, Maryland. 



t The Susquehanna Fishery is at Battery Island, below Havre de Grace, Maryland. 



MALE SALMON. 



EXTERMINATION OE THE STURGEONS. 



