10 Conservation Department 



The lake and pond water areas are further augmented by about 

 7,000 miles of streams and 106 miles of barge canal waters. Three 

 large rivers, the Clyde, Seneca and Oneida, unite the outlets of the 

 lakes to form the Oswego river which carries the drainage into Lake 

 Ontario. Of the 7,000 miles of streams in this watershed, 1,888 

 miles are considered worthy of stocking and of this mileage, 1,430 

 are suitable waters for trout. 



Authorization of Survey. — On March 31, 1927, an appropria- 

 tion of $50,000 was made from the Conservation Fund (chap. 592 

 of the Laws of 1925) for ''the biological survey, including fish 

 protection." In pursuance of this provision this survey, the 

 second in the series, was undertaken in the Oswego watershed 

 during the summer of 1927. The report of the first survey, that 

 of the Genesee river system, became available for distribution 

 early in the current year. 



Statistics. — According to the records of the Conservation 

 Department the number of fry and fingerlings distributed from 

 the State hatcheries into the Oswego river system totals for the 

 ten-year period, 1917-1926, 365,630,572 young fish. The distribu- 

 tion by species is shown in Table 1. 



It is a staggering number of fish to have carried through the 

 hatching process and to have distributed in the watershed. The 

 question may well be asked, "What has been the catch?" In 

 practice such data are very hard to get. A few sporadic attempts 

 are made by sportsmen's clubs to collect data on the catch but as 

 a whole interest lags. Yet it is no longer a matter of individual 

 or even local interest but a part of a larger problem of the evalua- 

 tion of the fishery water. Any sort of satisfactory fishery statis- 

 tics if they could be obtained would assist in disclosing the 

 condition and trend of each fishery and in the improvement of 

 legislation therefor. 



Program of Investigation. — The primary object of this survey, 

 as in the initial one of the series, is the development of a stocking 

 policy for the streams and lakes of the watershed based on a 

 scientific understanding of conditions existing therein. Important 

 considerations relate to productivity, the correlation of species of 

 fish with different types of waters and the control of competitive 

 or destructive species. Investigation has proceeded under three 

 main lines — lake survey, stream survey and carp control studies 

 together with contributory studies dealing with pollution, dis- 

 tribution, parasitism, plankton and other food resources. The 

 several papers on these subjects incorporated in this report present 

 the results of the survey for this year included mainly within 

 the dates of June 15 to September 15, 1927. 



It is manifestly impossible in a single season to cover by inten- 

 sive study all fisheries problems arising in the region of the survey. 

 For this reason each unit stream system is given a somewhat 

 comprehensive treatment with subsequent arrangement and pro- 

 vision for correlated research on urgent problems. 



