150 ANIMAL BIOLOGY 



tion as indicated in 105, but also that wise laws governing 

 the catching of fish should be passed and rigidly enforced. 

 The United States government has done and is still doing 

 splendid work in the artificial propagation and distribution 

 of fishes through the agency of the thirty-nine fish-hatching 

 stations of the Bureau of Fisheries, but has done little or 

 nothing in the regulation of the fish industry. This has been 

 left to the initiative of the states. Following are some of the 

 regulations that many of the states have embodied in laws : 

 (1) There must be no obstruction in rivers that would pre- 

 vent fish from moving freely up and down streams either 

 to spawn or to search for food. If dams are built, runways 

 must also be constructed permitting the free passage of 

 fish. (2) Fish must not be caught at the spawning season, 

 otherwise the future supply is endangered. (3) No methods 

 of fishing should be employed in which immature fish are 

 caught or killed. Such methods are (a) exploding dynamite 

 in the water, thus killing all kinds and sizes of fish indis- 

 criminately; (6) catching fishes with nets the meshes of 

 which are so small that immature fish are caught as well as 

 mature; (c) wholesale and mechanical devices of catching 

 fish such as the fishing wheel, for by this device the fish have 

 no chance for escape. (4) Fishermen must not keep fish 

 even when caught if they are undersized. (5) It should 

 be illegal to destroy any food fish or use it for any purpose 

 other than food. 



These laws are enforced by state fish and game wardens 

 provided there is public demand for their enforcement. 

 The necessity for the enforcement of these regulations will 

 be obvious, not only in waters over which the states have 

 jurisdiction, but also in the waters controlled by the United 

 States government. 



