KISH-CULTURAL PRACTICES IN THE BUREAU OF FISHEiaES. 755 



DISTRIBUTION AND PLANTING OF THE COMMERCIAL FISHES. 



It being infeasible for various reasons to rear the young of the commercial 

 fishes, practically all are planted as fry and the distributions are usually made 

 by agents of the Bureau. 



Fry of the marine species are often transferred to small boats in order to 

 plant in shallow water or they are carried from the hatchery in launches. In 

 such cases the cans are lowered into the water by two men and there slowly 

 inverted. When planting from a vessel two lines are made fast to the can, one 

 about the top and one about the bottom; by this means the can is lowered 

 over the side and when partially submerged is emptied. 



On the Great Lakes the distributions of lake trout, whitefish, and pike 

 perch are usually made by means of steam vessels. In such instances the water 

 in the cans is renewed as often as necessary by siphoning off a portion and 

 replenishing directly from the lake. The manner of liberating the fish after the 

 point of deposit has been reached varies in practice. In planting lake trout and 

 whitefish the method employed by the superintendent of the Duluth, Minn., 

 station is to pour the water and fry, one can at a time, into a large tub full of 

 water, from which the water and fish are siphoned through a heavy 2-inch 

 rubber hose attached to a pole or outrigger. Thus they are deposited in the 

 lake about 8 feet from the side of the vessel, very close to if not beneath the 

 surface of the lake, the speed of the vessel being slackened while the planting 

 is in progress. As it is customary to transport the fry on passenger or package 

 freight steamers, where they are necessarily stowed in a limited space and as 

 close to one gangway as possible, the cans may be emptied into a tub sitting 

 firmly on the deck more easily and expeditiously than they could be poured 

 directlv into the lake, and the element of danger to the men doing the work is 

 avoided also. 



The superintendent of the Northville station follows a somewhat similar 

 procedure m planting lake trout, pike perch, and whitefish fry. If the deck of 

 the vessel is near the water surface a piece of ordinary tin pipe is attached to a 

 tub and arranged with elbows so as to bring the lower end near the surface of 

 the lake. If the deck of the vessel is high above the water the tub is used with 

 15 or 20 feet of 2-inch fire hose instead of the tin pipe, a weight being attached 

 to the lower end. 



From the Put-in Bay station the fry are planted by pouring them over the 

 sides of the vessel as it moves slowly along, and the superintendent of this 

 station, from experiments he has made, believes this method preferable to the 

 use of hose or tin conductor as just described. 



