DESTRUCTION OF STURGEONS 301 



on the Pacific coast the same meteoric history was enacted, 

 a catch of over 3,000,000 pounds annually in the early nineties 

 being followed by a few hundred thousand pounds in later 

 years of the same decade, with no improvement since that 

 time, while on the Great Lakes the yield declined more than 

 90 per cent in 18 years. In the American waters of the Lake 

 of the Woods, one of the most recent grounds for the exploi- 

 tation of the Sturgeon, the catch decreased over 96 per cent 

 in ten years, nowithstanding a more active prosecution of the 

 fishing. 



"The Sturgeon fishery as a whole reached its climax about 

 1890. For two or three years the annual catch was 12,000,000 

 to 15,000,000 pounds. At the present time the total yield 

 does not exceed 1,000,000 pounds, and everywhere there is a 

 steady downward trend in the catch. Some rivers that 

 formerly supported a flourishing fishery are now absolutely 

 depleted. The scarcity of the Sturgeon and the demand 

 for their flesh and eggs have run up the price to an extraor- 

 dinary figure, never attained by any other fish, either in 

 America or elsewhere. A mature female Sturgeon often 

 brings the fisherman more than $150 and it is a poor fish 

 that cannot be sold for $20 to $30 on the rivers of the east 

 coast. 



'The most serious aspect of the Sturgeon fishery is that, 

 owing to the decimation of the schools of breeding fish and 

 to peculiarities in spawning habits, it has been impossible as 

 yet to inaugurate Sturgeon culture anywhere in America. 

 Attempts at artificial propagation have proved utter failures 

 on the Great Lakes, Lake of the Woods, Lake Champlain, 



