152 American Fisheries Society. 



made to find a way to stop this sapping of our fishery resources, 

 it must be reluctantly confessed that the burden has fallen upon 

 our fish culturists, who have had almost no aid from the agri- 

 culturists ; in fact, the latter have frequently fought the remedial 

 measures applied, and it has been necessary to require by law 

 that some preventive measures be adopted in such ditches. 



One of the earliest safeguards employed was the placing 

 across the mouth of these ditches of a heavy wire screen of small 

 enough mesh to prevent the fish from getting through. The 

 principal disadvantage of this device was that floating leaves 

 and other debris gathered along its face and sometimes almost 

 formed a dam of it, and it proved a difficult matter to keep it 

 clean. A big wheel, the full width of the ditch, and with a fine 

 mesh covering, was then devised and this was found to work 

 better than the screen, as the revolving of the wheel due to the 

 force of the current prevented part of the debris from accumulat- 

 ing on and against it. While a number of these are in use they 

 have been successful only in a measure, and the same objections 

 have been made against them that are made against the screen. 



Several years ago W. J. Burkey, of Berkeley, Calif., con- 

 ceived the idea of an electric fish stop, and shortly afterwards 

 got in touch with the Yakima County Fish and Game Com- 

 mission. In 1920 he came to Yakima and installed one or two 

 of his devices in irrigation ditches nearby. At this time the 

 device was an exceedingly crude one, and a little experimental 

 work soon developed that while it had some merit it would have 

 to be greatly improved to do the work desired. Shortly after 

 this the Yakima County authorities purchased the county rights 

 for the use of the device. The State Department of Fisheries 

 assigned an electrical expert to the work of perfecting it and 

 he and E. C. Greenman, County Game Warden, worked with the 

 device for several months and finally produced the one now 

 in use. 



The present electrical fish stop consists of from two to four 

 rows of iron or steel spirals, placed in a vertical position, and 

 from two to five feet apart both up stream and across and ex- 

 tending from about six feet above high water mark to the bottom 

 of the ditch. These spirals are held in position by means of a 

 wooden frame which stands entirely out of the water and is 

 placed across the canal above the headgates. An ordinary light 



