FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 



213 



Another kind of pickerel is especially plentiful in certain short tidal 

 creeks of Long Island. This is the little banded pickerel, a fish seldom 

 exceeding ten inches in length, with flaky, white flesh, very few bones, and 

 with a delicious flavor. This pickerel is well worthy of the attention of 

 fish culturists. 



Striped Bass. 



This valuable food and game fish has become very scarce in New York 

 waters. If it spawns anywhere within the waters of the State no one 

 appears to be able to tell where its spawning grounds are located. Many 

 unsuccessful attempts have been made to obtain its eggs for artificial 

 hatching. Even at Havre de Grace, Md., where a few eggs were secured 





STRIPED BASS 



some years ago by the United States Fish Commission, no attempt is now 

 made to continue the effort because of repeated failures. The Bureau of 

 F'-heries at present collects eggs of this bass in North Carolina. It is not 

 difficult to hatch the eggs when obtained, but the supply, as compared with 

 the number easily secured of other fishes, is very small. 



In spite of the waning condition of the striped bass supply, market men 

 are still selling immature bass in large numbers, so,ne of them weighing only 

 a few ounces. In California, where tins bass was introduced from the 

 Atlantic Coast, fish weighing less than three pounds cannot lawfully be sold. 

 Under the present New York law, the lowest legal limit of length for a 

 marketable bass is eight inches, but this is insufficient to protect the fish, 

 and the law should be amended so as to make the lowest limit twelve inches. 



