18(5 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



Although it was so recently as 1899 that the first lot of f rog-s was 

 introduced on the island of Hawaii, the}' have increased so rapidly 

 around Hilo that many are now shipped to San Francisco, and the 

 Honolulu market is also supplied from this section. This industry 

 has not been so successful on the other islands, however. 



One of the most peculiar features of the Hawaiian fisheries has been 

 the well-developed principle of private ownership of fishes found in 

 the open sea and bays to within a certain prescribed distance from 

 shore. This being contrary to American practice, the enabling act 

 which admitted the islands as a territory in 1900 provided for the 

 extinguishment of these rights on June 11, 1903, and lixed the manner 

 of adjudication in the courts. In the lower courts the claims of the 

 fishery owners were denied, it being decided that their tisheries did 

 not constitute a vested right. One case, however, in which the fishery 

 right was specifically mentioned in the original grant, was appealed to 

 the United States Supreme Court, which in April of this year (1901) 

 rendered a decision sustaining the claim. This decision will doul)tless 

 settle the status of all similar claims pending. There are a number of 

 claims, however, in which the fishery is not specifically mentioned in 

 the original grants, and these will doubtless have to be passed upon 

 by the Supreme Court eventually. 



FISIIEKIES OF THE INTERIOR LAKES AND STREAMS OF NEW YORK AND 



VERMONT. 



A canvass of the commercial fisheries of this region was made in the 

 fall of 1903, and the industry v/as found to be carried on in the fol- 

 lowing waters: Lakes Bear, Cassadaga, Canandaigua, Cayuga, Cham- 

 plain, Chautauqua, Couesus, George, Keuka, Mill Site, Oneida, Onon- 

 daga, Otsego, Owasco, Seneca, and Skaneateles, and the Oneida and 

 Seneca rivers in New York and Lake Champlain in Vermont. A few 

 other lakes and streams were visited in both States, but as the}' have 

 no commercial fisheries they are not enumerated. 



The only other canvass of this region made by the Bureau was in 

 1896, when data were collected for the calendar year 1895. A compar- 

 ison of the figures for the two years shows a most gratifj-ing increase in 

 every particular. In New York in 1895 the number of fishermen was 

 513, while in 1902 there were 801, a gain of 261. The total invest- 

 ment in 1895 was $19,745. In 1902 it had increased to $25,291*, a gain 

 of $5,516. In 1895 the total catch was 751,730 pounds, valued at 

 $60,086, while in 1902 it was 1,530,918 pounds, valued at $87,897, a 

 gain of 776,168 pounds and $27,811. The interior waters of this State 

 produce more muskellunge and smelt than the fresh waters of any 

 other state in the Union, while the}' lead all other waters, except the 

 Great Lakes, in the catch of bullheads, pickerel, wall-eyed pike, yellow 

 perch, and suckers. 



