418 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
deal of illegal fishing is being done. Little or no notice is taken of it in the case of the shad, however, 
for the reason shad are so numerous at most seasons that it is thought no perceptible decrease will he 
caused by the methods now employed. 
The high price paid for shad did not long continue, for a marked increase in the catch was the 
result of the small fish planted from time to time by the United States Fish Commission. Most people 
could not afford to purchase this food-fish while high prices prevailed, and the demand c .me almost 
wholly from first-class restaurants, hotels, and wealthy families. It was not until about 1886 that 
the fish began to he generally consumed, at which time the price had fallen to 10 cents a pound, a few 
cents higher than salmon. Previous to this, comparatively few people on this coast had ever eaten 
shad, and considerable effort was put forth by dealers to increase the sale, the supply being greatly in 
excess of the demand. People in moderate circumstances not being familiar with the food value of 
this newly introduced fish, it was not unnatural for them to continue to buy such species as they had 
always been accustomed to, namely, sturgeon, salmon, herring, smelt, and rockfish. To-day shad are 
in large demand, hut they have not taken the place of, or, in the estimation of many, rank with, the 
foregoing fishes. 
The fisliing-grounds . — The principal shad fishing-grounds in the vicinity of San 
Francisco are San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay, Suisun Bay, Karquines Strait, 
Sacramento River, and San Joaquin River. The comparatively few shad taken outside 
the Golden Gate are caught only incidentally and do not indicate any special resorts 
for the fish in the waters frequented by the paranzella fishermen. The hydrographic 
basin which finds its outlet through the Golden Gate is the most important shad 
ground on the west coast and is evidently admirably adapted to the growth and 
multiplication of that fish. 
The concentration of the shad in the San Francisco Bay region seems to be due to 
the absence of suitable waters elsewhere on the California coast, and does not indicate 
any special tendency of the fish to remain in the waters where the fry were first planted. 
On the entire coast of California there are no streams of proper length, depth, tem- 
perature, volume, etc., to afford spawning- grounds for shad, with the exception of the 
Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. 
The following interesting statement of the physical relations existing between 
the waters of this region and the fish fauna is from the report of Mr. W. A. Wilcox, 
entitled “ The fisheries of the Pacific Coast” (Report United States Fish Commission, 
1893 ) : 
A large part of the salt-water and fresh-water fish received in San Francisco is taken in San 
Francisco Bay and its tributary bays and streams. This inland water area is of large extent and 
well adapted to the support of a large amount and variety of animal life. The quantity of fishery 
products annually withdrawn from these waters is enormous, hut it is doubtful if the full resources 
are utilized or appreciated. 
In a general way the dimensions of San Francisco Bay and the smaller bays connected therewith 
may be stated as follows : From the southern end of San Francisco Bay, bordering on Santa Clara 
County, to San Francisco is a distance of 25 miles, the width of the bay being from 2 to 10 miles. 
Between San Francisco and the entrance of San Pablo Bay the distance is 11 miles ; San Pablo Bay is 
10 miles long and from 8 to 10 miles wide. Karquines Strait, which connects San Pablo Bay with 
Suisun Bay, is 8 miles long and one-half to 1 mile wide. Suisun Bay is 16 miles long and from one- 
half to 6 miles wide. The total length of these connected waters is about 70 miles. 
At the northern end of Suisun Bay, in Solano County, the two largest rivers in the State have 
their outlets. A peculiar feature of these rivers, probably not found elsewhere in the United States, 
is the relation existing between their respective sources and outlets. The San Joaquin takes its rise 
in the semitropical section of the southern part of the State, and flows northward hundreds of miles 
through a warm region. The Sacramento, with its headwaters among the perpetually snow-covered 
Sierra Nevada Mountains, flows south many hundred miles, and, through numerous passages, mingles 
with the San Joaquin and is lost in the tide waters of the bay. These two streams constantly carry 
with them a large amount of minute animal and vegetable life, much of which must find a congenial 
