32 
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
apart as a government bird preserve. These conditions should result 
in federal surveillance and control. 
The Bureau will undertake to stock all such reservoirs with suit- 
able fish and to maintain the supply of fish therein, but it is thought 
that a definite policy should be determined on for the exercise of 
proper control over the fishing in such waters. Reasonable restric- 
tions on the times and methods of fishing should be prescribed after 
investigation, but the Bureau is without any authority or machinery 
to enforce regulations; and it is apparent that there should be some 
arrangement for cooperation between the Reclamation Service, which 
controls the reservoirs, and this Bureau, which will keep them sup- 
plied with fish. 
Closely connected with this matter is the necessity for protecting 
the fish life in the irrigation canals and ditches in the West. The 
absence of guards or screens at the heads of ditches permits the fish 
to run in from the canals and become stranded. Furthermore, the 
annual draining of the canals and ditches leaves fish without water. 
In this way tremendous destruction of fish is now going on, and much 
larger loss will ensue later. It is therefore very important that gen- 
eral regulations be framed for the preservation of fish in such waters 
by requiring the use of effective screens or wheels. 
INTERNATIONAL FISHERY MATTERS. 
The treaty between the United States and Great Britain signed 
April 11, 1908, provides for joint governmental control and admin- 
istration of the fisheries of the contiguous waters of the United 
States and Canada. To carry out the terms of the treaty two inter- 
national fisheries commissioners have been appointed — Dr. David S. 
Jordan on behalf of the United States and Hon. S. T. Bastedo on 
behalf of Canada. The commissioners are charged with the prepa- 
ration of uniform and common international regulations for the pro- 
tection and preservation of the food fishes of the boundary waters. 
The field investigations preliminary to the formulation of the neces- 
sary regulations were conducted by the commissioners in the summer 
of 1908, and at the request of the Department of State the three 
chiefs of division of the Bureau were detailed to assist in these in- 
quiries, which covered all the international waters from Passama- 
quoddy Bay to Puget Sound. The report of the commissioners has 
been placed in the hands of the President of the United States and 
the Governor-General of Canada for promulgation. 
At the request of the Department of State the Bureau, as in the 
three previous years, detailed a representative to proceed to New- 
foundland and report on the operations of American fishing vessels 
on the coast of that colony under the modus vivendi, pending the set- 
tlement of the dispute as to the rights of our fishermen under the 
