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The National Geographic Magazine 



except America may be explained in 

 several ways. In the first place, govern- 

 ment fish culture is almost unknown in 

 most countries, and this form of agricul- 

 ture is not practicable for the private fish 

 culturist, who would not be able to reap 

 the exclusive harvest from his labors. 

 Then, many government fishery authori- 

 ties, believing" that man cannot perma- 

 nently reduce the abundance of fishes by 

 his fishing operations, however destruc- 

 tive, contend that he cannot appreciably 

 increase their abundance by artificial 

 means, however extensive. This view is 

 far from being established by competent 

 evidence, and is not generally entertained 

 in the United States or elsewhere. 



SPECIES CULTIVATED 



At a very early period in the history 

 of the National Bureau of Fisheries it 

 was determined by Commissioner Baird 

 and his associates that, in view of the 

 government's lack of jurisdiction over 

 the coastwise fisheries and its consequent 

 inability to promote them by adequate 

 regulation, the most feasible aid that 

 could be rendered by the government 

 would be through artificial propagation. 

 The Bureau therefore took up the neces- 

 sary experimentation looking to the adop- 

 tion of extensive cultural operations, and 

 soon determined the apparatus and meth- 

 ods applicable to the different species. 

 The work has been conducted on a grad- 

 ually increasing scale, and three govern- 

 ment hatcheries, located at Gloucester 

 and Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and 

 Boothbay Harbor, Maine, are now main- 

 tained for the purpose. The fishes regu- 

 larly propagated are cod at all the 

 stations, flounders at Woods Hole and 

 Gloucester, and pollock at the latter 

 place. Other fishes — mackerel, tautog, 

 sea bass, and scup — have also been 

 hatched from time to time. Lobsters are 

 hatched at all three stations, but the larg- 

 est quantities of young are produced at 

 the Boothbay Harbor station, recently 

 established by Congress as a special lob- 

 ster hatchery. 



The great justification of marine 



hatching operations as conducted by the 

 United States government lies in the fact 

 that a vast majority of the eggs taken 

 would be totally lost if the fish culturist 

 did not come to the rescue. As to the 

 few remaining eggs that might be ex- 

 truded and hatched naturally, the in- 

 creased efficacy of artificial propagation 

 must be conceded. 



OBTAINING THE EGGS 



Cod eggs are obtained for the hatch- 

 eries in three different ways. The most 

 prolific source is the catch of the fisher- 

 men on the Maine, New Hampsliire, 

 and Massachusetts coasts. Experienced 

 spawn-takers board the fishing boats 

 either on the fishing grounds or on the 

 way to port, strip the eggs from the 

 dying or dead fish, fertilize them, and 

 then as soon as possible send them to the 

 hatchery. This work, carried on in mid- 

 winter, involves great expostn-e and hard- 

 ship, of a nature to be felt by the most 

 stolid fisherman. The second method of 

 securing cod eggs is to catch the mature 

 fish with hand lines on the outlying 

 shoals, take them to the hatchery in the 

 wells of smacks, and hold them in live- 

 cars pending the gradual ripening of 

 their eggs. At regular intervals the fish 

 are overhauled and the ripe eggs ex- 

 pressed and fertilized. Several thousand 

 brood fish are thus handled at the Woods 

 Hole station each year. An improve- 

 ment on this practice has recently been 

 tried at Woods Hole, as a result of per- 

 sonal observations in Norway b}^ the 

 Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries. The 

 brood fish are held in a large covered 

 compartment, and are allowed to spawn 

 naturally ; and the eggs, rising to the sur- 

 face, flow over a shallow sluice and are 

 collected in scrim bags or on a wire-mesh 

 tray, whence they are transferred to the 

 hatching apparatus. By this method the 

 laborious task of forcibly expressing the 

 eggs from the struggling fish is made un- 

 necessary, a much larger percentage of 

 eggs is obtained and fertilized, and the 

 brood fish remain in excellent condition, 

 and may be released when the spawning 



