EXPERIMENTS IN STURGEON CULTURE 



By W. \L. Meeuax, 

 commissioner of fisheries of pennsylvania. 



A few years ago the legislatures of New Jersey and Penn- 

 s}'lvania made api)r()priati()ns for C()-()perati\-e work to pro- 

 ])agate the sturgeon in tlie Delaware ri\er. The United 

 States ( loxernnient exhil)ited its deep interest In' assigning 

 Mr. Lixingstone Stone to assist. Pennsylvania's hatching 

 ])lant on the Delaware, then at Bristol, was made ready nnder 

 Alr. Stone's direction. One of the superintendents of the 

 Pennsylvania l-'ish Commission was placed in charge in the 

 field and experienced fishermen were engaged and o\erlooked 

 l)y an emplo}-ee tjf the New Jersey Commission who liad 

 heen himself the owner of a fleet of sturgeon hoats. 



1die flrst season's work, extending o\-er se\'eral weeks, 

 was an utter failure. Ahout two dozen large fish were 

 secured, of both sexes. Some were* spent, some had hard 

 eggs or milt. Three or four ripe females were captured but 

 at no time were ripe specimens of both sexes caught near 

 enough together to allow the eggs to be fertilized. 



P)ot]i states made another effort the next year but with no 

 better success. Later, Penns}-l\ania tried again, alone but 

 without a\-ail. .\t no time could ri])e males and females be 

 obtained at the same time. I understand that the Ignited 

 States l)ureau of fisheries tried elsewhere l)ut with no better 

 success. A des])on(lent letter from the Cnited States Fish 

 Commissioner confirmed me in an oi)inion that further effort 

 lo axert the seemingly inevitable extinction of the sturgeon 

 in the Delaware ri\er would l)e hopeless. 



But an incident at the 'forresdale liatclier}', Philadeli^lu'a, 

 in 1907. re\"i\e(l m\- hoi)e tliat perliaps after all discourage- 

 ment was ])remature and that there was a possibility that suc- 

 :ess might be attained. During the shad .season of 1906, Mr, 



