Vol. XV, No. 5 



WASHINGTON 



May, 1904 



.A 



O 



THE 



'ATffiDNAL 



©(SEAMED 



'MdAM 



a 



THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES' 1 



HOW THE RICH FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES ARE 



PROTECTED AND NEW FISHING GROUNDS 



DISCOVERED OR CREATED 



By Dr Barton Warren Evermann 



Assistant in Charge, Division of Scientific Inquiry, Bureau of Fisheries 



IN order that we may understand 

 clearly the purposes, scope, and 

 methods of the Bureau of Fish- 

 eries, it will be helpful to recall briefly 

 the circumstances leading up to and at- 

 tending its inception. In 1870 commit- 

 tees of the legislatures of Massachusetts 

 and Rhode Island and the State Fish 

 Commissions of Connecticut, Vermont, 

 and New Hampshire made inquiries con- 

 cerning the reported decrease in theabun- 

 danceofcertainspeciesof important food- 

 fishes and the cause of the decrease, if 

 such had occurred. The Massachusetts 

 committee found that there had been no 

 real decrease. The Rhode Island com- 

 mittee, with practically the same evi- 

 dence, concluded that there had been a 

 serious decrease, but weie not agreed as 

 to the cause. New Hampshire and Ver- 

 mont were sure that the shad and salmon 

 fisheries were being depleted, and at- 

 tributed it to the use of traps in and 

 about the mouth of the Connecticut 



River. Connecticut was willing to 

 abolish traps if Massachusetts would 

 put in fishways at all the dams on the 

 Connecticut River in that State and if 

 New Hampshire and Vermont would 

 furnish sufficient quantities of salmon 

 and shad fry for restocking the river. 

 Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massa- 

 chusetts failed to keep the agreement and 

 Connecticut soon began licensing traps. 



So diverse were the opinions expressed 

 by different fishermen and the conclu- 

 sions reached by the different state com- 

 mittees that it became at once apparent 

 that the actual facts could be deter- 

 mined only through very careful inves- 

 tigation. 



In view of these facts, it was thought 

 that the condition of the fisheries should 

 receive investigation by the federal gov- 

 ernment, and the following bill was in- 

 troduced in the House of Representa- 

 tives by the Hon. Henry L. Dawes, of 

 Massachusetts. 



* An address before the National Geographic Society Friday evening, February 12, 1904 



