430 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



and the remaining $24,000,000 from all 

 other aquatic products. 



THREE BILLION SHAD HAVE BEEN 

 PLANTED 



Much evidence can be adduced to show 

 that the fish-cultural operations of the 

 general government are of direct financial 

 benefit to the country at large. The re- 

 sults in the case of some species have 

 been so striking and so widespread that it 

 would be almost as supererogatory to re- 

 fer to them as to discuss the utility of 

 agriculture ; in the case of other species 

 there can be no doubt of the value of the 

 work, although it may be possible only 

 occasionally to distinguish the effects of 

 human intervention on the fish supply 

 from the effects of natural causes. The 

 outcome of the bureau's efforts to in- 

 crease the food supply is naturally most 

 evident in the case of small streams, 

 lakes, and ponds, of which thousands 

 have been successfully stocked with the 

 most desirable food and game species. 



The leading river fish of the eastern 

 seaboard is the shad. No other anad- 

 romous species has been more extensively 

 cultivated and none is now so dependent 

 on artificial measures for its perpetuation. 

 Inasmuch as the principal 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 resi- 

 dent 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 ow- 

 ing 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 cultiva- 

 tion is today a leading factor in fishery 

 work, almost every large stream having 

 been the site of hatching operations. 



The extent of the work may be gaged 

 when it is stated that nearly 3,000 mil- 

 lions 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 mar- 

 ket, and hence would have been totally 

 lost if the bureau had not collected them 

 from the fishermen. 



EXTINCTION OF SHAD IS THREATENED 



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 cap- 

 ture 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 east- 

 ern rivers. 



At length, however, the unrestricted 

 fishing became greedy to an overwhelm- 

 ing 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 de- 

 cline in catch, which threatens to result 

 in the extinction of the fishery. The 

 bureau has continued its efforts in propa- 

 gation, 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 spawn-takers must 

 therefore wait for the run farther up- 

 stream ; but with the recent exhaustive 

 fishing in the salt waters so few fish have 

 escaped that the egg collections have di- 

 minished 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, to- 

 gether with the enforced curtailment of 

 propagation, speaks even more convinc- 



