EXPERIMENTS IN TAGGING COD. 195 
The number of fish tagged during the four winters covered by the 
experiment was 4,019, divided as follows among the different years: 
TCC CII eee EE a 2 ee 2 Oe 562 
QU Re TRO meter ten ee ee) 593 
(ECUOCe ETT ye etn) ae eS re PY A Pe Re 1, 421 
TUGSTU"D STO Sa cz an ee ee NN re Del 1, 443 
Among the subjects on which it was expected the tagging might 
throw light and thus prove of practical interest, were the rate of 
growth of the cod, the frequency of its spawning, the extent to which 
the individual fish migrate, the rate of movement, etc. 
Although it is probable that other tagged fish may hereafter be 
captured, it is thought that sufficient time has elapsed and enough tags 
have been recovered to warrant the present summary of the outcome 
of the experiment. 
NUMBER OF TAGGED FISH CAPTURED. 
From the accompanying table it will be seen that of the 4,019 fish 
tagged and released 140 were subsequently captured by commercial 
fishermen up to December 31, 1901. The number taken during each 
of the four seasons covered by the experiment was as follows: 
SOS 9 Se eee rane tek he te eee ae ea ee eere 30 
TES }o fore ah) 2 te a renter eae rene Rlecgetee AUS ee ree  Meeae e 30 
S999 00 se Se eee ee et eee ee aaa eae ee eee eee ee 
TSO 0S 190 Wee ee eC ile nee Se Me ce ee tee ee ees 53 
In addition to the foregoing there were quite a number of tagged 
fish taken for which records are unobtainable, the fishermen having 
lost or mislaid the tags or failed to report the captures. In New 
Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island fully 20 tagged fish are known 
to have been caught, but the tag numbers are unknown and hence the 
captures can not be taken into consideration. Some of the fishermen 
in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, took a number of cod which they 
liberated alive on discovering the tags without noting the tag numbers. 
In some cases fishermen are known to have unreported tags in their 
possession which they are keeping as curiosities. In a few instances 
fishermen have failed to report the catching of tagged cod through fear 
that there was some penalty attached to the killing of such fish. 
Several reports of the capture of tagged cod on the coasts of Maine 
and Nova Scotia could not be verified. 
In a number of instances the tags have not been observed at the 
time the fish were caught, but have been discovered by the wholesale 
dealers to whom the fish were sold. Occasionally tags have been 
forwarded by consumers. When fish were salted on the grounds, tags 
have sometimes been recovered months afterwards in the houses of 
salt-fish dealers or the skinning lofts of preparers of boneless cod. In 
at least one case a tag was overlooked by the man who caught the fish, 
by the men who cleaned, split, and salted it, by the man who unloaded 
it from the vessel, by those who handled it on shore, by the wholesale 
dealer, and by the retail dealer; it was eventually found by a consumer 
remote from the shore and forwarded to the Commission. 
