THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 1 399 



dependent on artificial measures for its perpetuation. Inasmuch as the prin- 

 cipal fisheries are in interstate or coastal waters and the movements of the fish 

 from the high seas to our rivers and back to the high seas place it beyond the 

 claim to ownership which might be urged by the various States were the shad a 

 permanent resident within their jurisdiction, it seemed especially desirable and 

 necessary that this species should be fostered by the General Government for 

 the benefit of the entire country. For this reason, and owing to a serious decline 

 that had already set in, the shad was one of the first species whose artificial 

 propagation was taken up by the Bureau, and its cultivation is to-day a leading 

 factor in fishery work, almost every large stream having been the site of hatching 

 operations. The extent of the work may be gauged when it is stated that nearly 

 3,000 millions of young shad have been planted by the Bureau in coastal streams, 

 and a very significant point is that the eggs from which these fish were hatched 

 were taken from fish that had been caught for market, and hence would have 

 been totally lost if the Bureau had not collected them from the fishermen. 



The great multiplication of all kinds of fishing appliances on the coast, in 

 the bays, in the estuaries, and along the courses of the rivers, resulted in the 

 capture of a very large part of the run each season before the shad reached the 

 spawning grounds, and hence the natural increase was seriously curtailed, and, 

 in some streams, almost entirely prevented. Yet the shad catch increased, and 

 for many years the fishery prospered in the face of conditions more unfavorable 

 than confront any other fish of our eastern rivers. At length, however, the 

 unrestricted fishing became greedy to an overwhelming extent. The mouths of 

 the rivers and the lower waters through which the shad must pass became so 

 choked with nets that fishing gear farther upstream could make but slender 

 hauls; and for several years there has been a steady decline in catch, which 

 threatens to result in the extinction of the fishery. The Bureau has continued 

 its efforts of propagation, but these are curtailed by the factor that is also 

 destructive to the fishery. When they first enter the streams the shad are not 

 ripe and are useless to the hatcheries, and the spawntakers must therefore wait 

 for the run farther upstream ; but with the recent exhaustive fishing in the salt 

 waters so few fish have escaped that the egg collections have diminished to an 

 alarming extent, being reckoned now in millions where formerly they were 

 hundreds of millions. Under such conditions it is impossible to propagate 

 enough fish to offset the quantities taken, and the shad fishery is fast being 

 deprived of its one support; while the present meager shad catch together with 

 the enforced curtailment of propagation speaks even more convincingly of the 

 value of artificial measures than did the preceding increase. 



The long continuance of the Penobscot as a salmon stream for many years 

 after all other New England rivers had ceased to carry this fish is directly 

 attributable to the work of the Bureau on that stream. So dependent on 



