REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XV 



Gloucester Station, Massachusetts, E. M. Robinson, Superintendent. 



For several years the Commission lias prosecuted steadily at the 

 Wood's Holl Station experimental investigations looking to the develop- 

 ment of methods and apparatus for hatching the floatiug eggs of the 

 cod, haddock, and other important commercial species. Prior to 1885 

 the investigations had not passed the experimental stage, nor were 

 the results obtained very encouraging. Each season, however, some 

 advance to practicable methods was secured, the causes of failure be- 

 ing, one by one, ascertained and eliminated, and the conditions for suc- 

 cess established. 



In the winter of 1885-'S6 Captain Chester, superintendent of the 

 Wood's IIoll Station, devised a modification of the McDonald tidal ap- 

 paratus, by the use of which he succeeded in hatching a very consider- 

 able per cent, of the ova of the cod, and made it practicable to under- 

 take extensive and systematic fish cultural work with all the marine 

 species affording buoyant or floating eggs. 



In the winter of 1886-'87, some seven million young codfish were 

 hatched out and turned into the adjacent waters of Vineyard Sound 

 and Buzzard's Bay. The methods for the profitable conduct of fish- 

 cultural operations with the marine species having been determined, it 

 was decided by the Commissioner, Prof. G. Brown Goode, to estab- 

 lish an auxiliary station at some point on the coast of Massachusetts, 

 north of Cape Cod. Gloucester Harbor was finally selected as the loca- 

 tion for this station, for the reason that it is conveniently situated with 

 reference to the fishing grounds^ which are easily reached either by the 

 vessels of the Commission or by the numerous fishing vessels which 

 go out from Gloucester to the inshore grounds and to Ipswich Bay. 



The Light-House Board, responding promptly and courteously to the 

 request of the Commissioner, gave permission to locate the proposed 

 station on Ten Pound Island. Plans were prepared, the site occupied, 

 and arrangements to begin the construction of the station were per- 

 fected early in November, 1887. The work was pushed with the ut- 

 most dispatch ; and, after vexatious delays on account of unfavorable 

 weather, the station was completed and equipped ready for work on 

 January 8, 1888. 



The favorable season for work had then passed, and the extremely 

 cold weather that immediately supervened and continued during Janu- 

 ary and February kept the temperature of the water in the hatchery 

 below the point at which hatching operations can be successfully car- 

 ried on. A temperature below 30° kills the eggs which have reached 

 a certain stage of development, and when it descends to 28°, both old 

 and young fish succumb and perish. 



The season's work was valuable rather for the experience secured by 

 the personnel employed, and the opportunity to study the necessary 

 conditions for success in future operations, than for the material results 

 obtained. 



