366 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 



Lad$ of Information Aboat ft)e Wafers 



New York is said to have about 1,400 named lakes besides innumerable 

 ponds without known names. It has two of the Great Lakes on its western 

 border and about 300 miles of sea coast besides the great drainage systems 

 of the St. Lawrence, Lake Champlain, the Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, 

 and the Ohio Basins. Certainly there is an embarrassment of riches for the 

 hydrographer and the ichthyologist both of whom should rightly precede 

 the fish culturist, yet New York has done little to make us acquainted 

 with its waters and their inhabitants. There is probably not a single lake 

 or great river in New York which has been studied by an ichthyologist for 

 even as long a period as one month consecutively. We know very little 

 about the kinds of fish in any given body of water, still less about the natural 

 food of the fishes, and almost nothing concerning the results of stocking. 



I am, of course, aware that many articles and books treating of aquatic 

 life have been written and that some of them relate to the New York fauna ; 

 but a very small portion of their contents has any great significance for fish 

 culture. The scramble for museum types and duplicates and for exploiting 

 the uttermost parts of earth and sea is so continuous and absorbing that 

 few workers are left to investigate the nearby sources of industries and the 

 causes of their decline. 



Injurious Pi§I)ing 



Any method of fishing which prevents fish from ascending streams 

 from the ocean for the purpose of spawning in fresh water is injurious and 

 highly destructive. Such a style of fishing is the setting of fixed nets along 

 the coast at and near the river mouths in a manner to keep out the shad 

 entirely, and thereby cause the failure of both natural and artificial hatching 

 of their eggs. The disastrous effects of this practice are more and more 

 clearly seen year after year. This is not a matter under the control of the 

 State; but New York suffers for the lack of protection farther south. 



Illegal Piling 



The persistent and wholesale capture of fish in their breeding season 

 and during the period of winter rest, on their spawning beds and under ice, 



