American Fisheries Society 91 



President : Alay I remind the members of the fact that many years 

 ago Seth Green hatched sturgeon very successfully in his shad hatching 



l)OX. 



Xow, as to the matter of heavy eggs handled on trays, is not this 

 parallel to the method of Iiatching our muskellunge on Chautauqua 

 Lake? There we begin the work in jars, then transfer the eggs to a 

 tray with perforated wires giving a good circulation of water. They 

 hatch very successfully in this way unless left in the jars too long, 

 when the mortality is quite heavy. 



jMk. Meehan : I am well aware that there has been successful hatching 

 of sturgeon eggs. Mr. Stone himself was successful, as was also Pro- 

 fessor Ryder. But the principal point I want to make is that it is not 

 impossible to take and successfully impound the short-nosed sturgeon 

 and hold them until they ripen their eggs and milt. The great problem 

 that confronts us, at least on the Delaware, is to get the two sexes at 

 the same time. It cannot be done, at least so far we have not been able 

 to get them, whether early in the spring or late. Our efforts have 

 therefore been directed towards some method of impounding the fish 

 successfully. So far it has been found impossible to do anything with 

 large sturgeon in crates. We could neither ripen the eggs nor could we 

 successfully hold the fish any length of time in cribs. But the taking of 

 sturgeon either just before they were matured or at maturity, and hold- 

 ing them, was the point that we were trying to work out, and appa- 

 rently accomplished. 



Mr. Fullerton : I would like to ask when you found the fish running — 

 was it only in the spring? 



Mr. Meehan : It was in April. We commenced to get the short-nosed 

 sturgeon almost as soon as the nets were put in the river, the latter part 

 of March. 



Mr. Fullerton : The fishermen of the locality in Minnesota furnishing 

 most of the caviar, find ripe sturgeon all the year round, and I won- 

 dered if that was the case with you. 



Mr. Meehan : We find ripe eggs in April. But referring to the 

 common sturgeon, when Mr. Livingston Stone was engaged in the work 

 and New Jersey and Pennsylvania operated together, we found in July 

 both ripe sturgeon and hard sturgeon, the latter with fully developed 

 eggs but not yet matured. 



President: We must not lose sight of the fact that the lake sturgeon 

 is different from the short-nosed sturgeon of salt water. 



Mr. Fullerton : I think Mr. Meehan tried both kinds. 



Mr. Meehan : No, only the kind on the Delaware River. We are now 

 gathering Lake Erie sturgeon and putting them in large ponds. We 

 already liavc half a dozen fish two or three feet long whicli have Ixen 

 taken within the past two or three weeks. 



