Biological Survey — Oswego Watershed 83 



large body of water. These studies have shown us the wide scope 

 of this carp problem, which presents many phases as yet unstudied 

 or in which the investigation is not complete, and whose solution 

 is necessary before it will be possible to formulate regulations that 

 should be adopted for the control of carp. It is very much to be 

 doubted if any regulations other than the natural consumption of 

 carp will be successful in keeping their numbers down. To just 

 what extent the carp are really detrimental to the development of 

 game fish in large bodies of water, still remains a problem. When 

 the carp come in in large numbers where fishermen are casting 

 for bass, the bass usually cease to take the fly. In this sense they 

 may be characterized as detrimental to the catching of one of our 

 popular game fish. They are exceedingly shy and remarkably 

 swift in their movements, so that any detailed study of their 

 habits in a large body of water presents numerous difficulties. 

 But it is in large bodies of water in the State that they have come 

 to live in vast numbers, so that it is important that their adapta- 

 tions and habits be closely scrutinized. 



In this one summer it has been shown that the food of carp is 

 selected in part, chosen from animal sources. Their breed- 

 ing habits in the spring should be one of the first problems taken 

 up and this will necessitate beginning observations early in May. 

 We have been able to check up on many of the stories of the 

 fishermen and found most of them to be unreliable but of course 

 we were unable to make observations on the activities of the carp 

 during the early spring when they are said to be present in great 

 numbers in the over-flooded regions in the swamps of Three Mile 

 bay, Chittenango creek and elsewhere. 



We are, at the close of the summer not able to give a consistent 

 account of the one-year old carp. Where do they live and upon 

 what do they feed and are they associated with the large schools 

 of adults? Also, when do the young leave their characteristic 

 shallow water habitat and enter the deeper water? Do they con- 

 tinue to select their food and is it almost entirely of an animal 

 nature as it is during the first summer? These and similar prob- 

 lems must be studied before anything like the complete story of 

 the carp in a large lake can be told. Some one should take up the 

 whole problem of marketing carp for we feel that just as soon 

 as a constant demand can be created for carp as food, that the 

 simplest and most reasonable method of their control will have 

 been adopted. Associated with the selling of carp there will de- 

 velop a rather perplexing problem for the Conservation Depart- 

 ment, in giving its endorsement to some means of seining these 

 fish, for they cannot be taken to commercial advantage in any 

 other way. Before it is wise to issue permits for seining, it will 

 be necessary, we believe, to train men in this work, for while carp 

 are abundant, it does not follow by any means that they can be 

 taken regularly so as to meet a continuous demand. The casual 

 and superficial methods of local fishermen if utilized will surely 

 result in financial failure. The man who undertakes to catch 

 carp to supply a market demand must know the detailed habits 

 of carp and he must be equipped with an understanding of seining. 



