FEDERAL FISH FAR.AIIXG 



439 



SPECIMEN OF ROCK BOTTOM ON WHICH SPONGES GROW, FROM THE SPONGE BEDS OFF 



ANCLOTE KEY, FLORIDA 



This rock bears 13 species of commercial and non-commercial sponges, besides corals, 

 sea-feathers, stariishes, crabs, and other animals characteristic of the fauna of the sponge beds. 

 One-eighth natural size. 



which Maryland, once the foremost in 

 oyster production and one of the last 

 to resort to systematic cidtural measures, 

 afifords the most notable example. The 

 laws controlling the fishery in Chesa- 

 peake Bay have been designed to protect 

 the natural beds, but have not encouraged 

 or protected the oyster planter, and the 

 natural beds, thus practically the sole re- 

 liance, in time failed to sustain the tre- 

 mendous draft upon them. Between 

 1880 and 1897 the product fell 31.6 per 

 cent ; in 1904 it was 39 per cent less than 

 in 1897. 



The bureau had for many years 

 pointed out the short-sighted policy that 



was resulting in the steady decline of the 

 oyster industry, and was at length grati- 

 fied to find that the state had taken heed 

 of the warning and enacted a compre- 

 hensive law favoring oyster planting. 

 The work that has now been undertaken 

 by the Maryland Shell Fish Cotnmission 

 to remedv the alarming condition of the 

 oyster grounds will be the most complete 

 and accurate of its kind. It consists of 

 the survey and delimitation, by the aid of 

 the United States Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey and the Bureau of Fisheries, of 

 all natural oyster beds in Maryland 

 waters, to be marked and set aside as 

 public fishing grounds operated under the 



