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Part III. — Twenty-sixth Annual Report 



and while the hatchery is situated on the south coast and the fry are 

 " planted " in the neighbourhood, the great bulk of the cod are caught 

 on the west and north coasts, about 70 per cent, or more being taken 

 within the Arctic circle, from 800 to 1200 miles from the locality where 

 the hatching operations go on, and thus much farther from that locality 

 than are the eastern coasts of Great Britain. Conclusions formed in this 

 way are of no value, and the problem of the amount of benefit from sea- 

 fish hatching is not likely to be solved by means of the general fishery 

 statistics of any country. There are, however, some experimental proofs 

 of a special kind, referred to below. 



The results of the piscicultural operations might be tested in three 

 ways — (1) by the introduction of a fish not indigenous to the region ; (2) 

 by a system of special statistics of the fish caught in the region over a 

 series of years when no fry were added to the waters and over another 

 series of years when fry were liberated ; (3) by special investigations to 

 determine the abundance of the young fish in years when fry were added 

 and in years when they were not added. A most impressive body of 

 evidence of the kind first named has been afforded by the work in America 

 with the shad, as shown in various Reports of the Fish Commission. 



5. The Acclimatisation of Shad in thb Pacific. 



The shad (Clupea sapidissima) is an anadromous fish belonging to the 

 herring family which lives for the most part in the sea but resorts to 

 estuaries and rivers to spawn. It did not exist in the Pacific, but in 

 1871 a consignment of 10,000 fry, about eight days old, obtained from 

 the Hudson River on the Atlantic coast, were put in the Sacramento 

 River, California. In 1873 other 35,000 fry were added ; in 1876, 

 99,000; in 1877, 110,000; in 1878, 150,000; and in 1880, 215,000— the 

 total being 619,000 shad fry. From these small colonies great results 

 have come. An adult shad is said to have been taken in 1873, and 16 

 were obtained in 1874 and 1875; in 1876 and 1877 they had become 

 quite common in the Sacramento River, and some were found along the 

 coast over an extent of 400 miles. In the spring of 1879 several 

 thousand mature shad were sold in the market at San Francisco, and in 

 1886 the Californian Fish Commission estimated that a million good-sized 

 shad were taken in the waters of the State ; in 1895 it was reported that 

 the shad was one of the most abundant fishes of California, the quantity 

 taken being enormous, and the prices less than in any other State. Its 

 extension along the coast was remarkable. In 1882 it had reached 

 Puget Sound, and in 1895 its distribution extended from Los Angelos 

 County, California, to Wrangell Island, A laska, the range covering about 

 2700 miles of coast line, including the major indentations ; but from the 

 standpoint of commercial importance its distribution was from Monterey 

 Bay to Puget Sound. In recent years the fish has become so abundant 

 that the price has gone down enormously, being often less than a cent, 

 per pound, and of the tons taken in the salmon-seines nearly all are now 

 thrown back into the water or used as fertiliser. In 1899 the quantity 

 marketed in the Pacific States was 1,254,800 lbs., valued at 15,898 

 dollars, and the aggregate value since the introduction of the fish has been 

 over 300,000 dollars. 



In this case there can be no doubt of the benefit derived from the arti- 

 ficial propagation of the fish, for since it did not previously exist in the 

 waters of the Pacific the effect could be clearly traced to the liberation of 

 the fry, a matter which is by no means easy when, as is usually the case, 

 the fish is indigenous, and fry added merely go to increase the quantity 

 naturally present. 



