218 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



catch and value of the shad fishery of Maine within recent 

 years has been as follows : 1896, catch 366,738 fish, valued 

 at $30,788; 1898, catch, 861,879 fish, valued at $19,752; 

 1902, 848,999 fish, valued at $28,959; 1905, 1,087,200 fish, 

 valued at $54,286; 1906, 470,200 fish, valued at $7,716. 

 The number of persons employed in 1905 was 285 ; in 1906, 

 there were 350. 



For thirty years or more the people of Connecticut have 

 been endeavoring to keep alive the shad fishery of the 

 Connecticut River. Of all rivers of New England this one, 

 perhaps, has suffered the most from the destruction of its 

 fish. The salmon began to fall off in numbers as soon as 

 dams were erected. They disappeared entirely from the 

 river more than a hundred years ago. The movement of 

 restocking the Connecticut with salmon and shad had its 

 beginning in a meeting of commissioners from New Hamp- 

 shire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut held at 

 Boston on February 27, 1867. An agreement was entered 

 into at this meeting whereby "New Hampshire was to pro- 

 cure and distribute impregnated ova of salmon and shad 

 in the head waters of the river. Vermont and Massachu- 

 setts were to build suitable fishways for the passage of fish 

 over the dams to their spawning grounds ; and Connecticut 

 was to abolish gill-nets, stake nets, and pounds in the river 

 and on the sound. ' ' l 



Connecticut immediately restricted the shad fishing to 

 the period from March 15 to June 15. New Hampshire 

 planted 20,000 salmon fry in the head waters of the Con- 

 necticut that year. Seth Green began the artificial prop- 

 agation of shad at Holyoke. His attempts were not suc- 

 cessful at first but the next year he succeeded in hatching 

 several million of shad. In 1869 no attempts were made 

 to hatch shad. 



i Report of the Commissioners of Fisheries and Game, State of 

 Connecticut for 1906, p. 8. 



