THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 1 37 1 



CULTIVATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD FISHES. 

 GENERAL IMPORTANCE AND EXTENT. 



The artificial propagation of fishes was not contemplated at the time the 

 Bureau was formed, but was instituted by an act of Congress in 1872 at the insti- 

 gation of the American Fish Cultural Association, which had been organized 

 two years before and had taken a leading part in the establishment of the 

 Bureau. The fishes to which attention was given first were the shad, the Atlantic 

 salmon, and the whitefish. This work proved so popular that it was extended 

 annually, was supplemented by efforts in acclimatization, and soon overshadowed 

 all other branches. 



The Bureau has labored to make its operations commensurate with the 

 extent of the fisheries in public waters, and with the inevitable exhaustion of 

 the native fish life in the smaller lakes and streams incident to the development 

 of the country and the increase of population. The policy, as enunciated by 

 Doctor Goode, has been to carry out the idea that it is better to expend a small 

 amount of public money in making fish so abundant that they can be caught 

 without restriction and serve as cheap food for the people at large than to 

 expend a much larger sum in preventing the people from catching the few fish 

 that still remain after generations of improvidence. 



From this standpoint it is perhaps fortunate that up to the present the 

 Bureau has not had to devote its major energies to the formulation and enforce- 

 ment of fishery legislation, but has been able to work directly for the increase 

 of fish life. Public or government fish culture has in America attained tre- 

 mendous proportions, and exceeds in extent and importance that of all other 

 countries combined. However, the neglect of some of the States to provide 

 the minimum protection to certain species inhabiting interstate and inter- 

 national waters has not only negatived the fish-cultural work of the Bureau 

 and of the States themselves, but has practically inhibited it by preventing 

 the possibility of securing an adequate supply of eggs, thus making desirable 

 and necessary the institution of a new policy placing interstate and international 

 waters under the jurisdiction of the General Government. 



In the work of the Bureau of Fisheries the United States Government has 

 an especial and unique claim to the epithet "paternal." The stocking of 

 waters with food fishes is a direct benefit to the public, not only increasing the 

 very material that supports an enormous industry, but providing food itself 

 for the individual who will use his hook and line. From year to year, as the 

 importance of the work has become increasingly evident, additional hatcheries 

 have been built, the capacity of existing hatcheries has been enlarged, the scale 

 of the operations has been extended, new kinds of fishes have been added to 

 the output, and new sections have been brought under the direct influence of 

 the work. 



