Protection of Water Creatures 169 



from the shore, that it is a wonder that any fish get past 

 them. 



The waters of New England were once filled with striped 

 bass, smelt, salmon, and shad, but now these fish are almost 

 gone. The shad are rapidly decreasing all along the At- 

 lantic Coast. The nets in Lake Erie extend out sometimes 

 ten miles from shore, and the whitefish as well as the stur- 

 geon have been greatly reduced in numbers there. 



When the Pacific Coast was first settled, the "salmon 

 rim" in the Sacramento, Columbia, and other rivers was 

 a wonderful sight. The waters were fairly aUve with these 

 huge fish. HydrauUc mining so mnddied the waters of the 

 Sacramento that their numbers greatly decreased. Then 

 came the fishermen and stretched their nets across the rivers, 

 so nearly blocking the channels that the sahnon were rarely 

 seen on their old spawning grounds. Now salmon fishing 

 is carefully regulated and salmon are increasing. 



The shallow waters of San Francisco Bay, the ocean for 

 some miles out from shore, and the waters about the islands 

 of Southern California form very valuable fishing grounds, 

 which, if they are taken care of, will furnish much larger 

 supplies of fish than are now obtained. 



The interesting discovery has been made that the waters 

 around the islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente 

 form important spawning groxmds for many food fish, in- 

 cluding the great tuna. These waters were fished so de- 

 structively that many of the fish were foimd to be decreas- 

 ing. This has led to the establishment of a fish preserve 

 for three miles about Santa Catalina Island. Within this 

 area no fish are allowed to be taken except with a hook and 

 line. Some of the most valuable fish, which were almost 



