COMMON FISHES OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER 
181 
Table 5. — Market receipts of catfish 
Markets 
1914, whole 
year 
1916, sum- 
mer months 
Montrose, Iowa (and Nauvvo in 1914) . _ . . _ ... .. 
Pounds 
4, 800 
6, 900 
11, 130 
Pounds 
9,000 
25, 400 
7,200 
Fort Madison, Iowa 
Burlington, Iowa .. 
The growth of the fishery, as evidenced by the reports of the statistical survey 
conducted by the bureau, is very pronounced — from 72,000 pounds in 1914 to 110,000 
in 1917, 184,000 in 1922, and 140,000 in 1927. In Lake Pepin there was a very 
Figure 17. — Quantities of eatfishes taken near Keokuk, Iowa, by weeks, May 27 to September 9, 1916 
marked increase in yield from 1914 (27,000 pounds) to 1917 (254,000 pounds), but a 
reduced yield in 1922 (127,000 pounds), and a still smaller yield in 1927 (53,000 
pounds). The catches in the three years last mentioned were, however, much greater 
than in 1914. In reference to the catch reported for 1927, it must be considered that 
a new factor, apparently pollution, had come to have a markedly disastrous effect 
upon nearly all fishes of the region of Lake Pepin. 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS REGARDING CATFISHES 
The eatfishes are among the most valuable of the commercial fishes of the region 
of the Keokuk and of the Mississippi Basin generally. Three of the four important 
species of the river evidently breed both north and south of Keokuk and are not 
adversely affected by the dam. The Fulton catfish finds the dam near the limit of 
its range and is prevented from passing northward; but it is probable that it never 
extended northward of this point in substantial numbers. 
