REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
7 
etc. — that prevent the spawning fish from reaching their spawning 
grounds in adequate numbers. 
There was a further marked decrease in the collection of shad eggs 
and in the resulting output of fry. The lack of success at the stations 
on the Potomac and Susquehanna rivers can be accounted for only 
by the absence of protective measures that would insure the arrival 
of a fair percentage of the migrating fish at the spawning grounds. 
In sharp contrast to the results in Maryland and Virgina was the 
record at the North Carolina shad hatchery on Albemarle Sound, 
where the egg collections were larger than in any previous year ex- 
cept 1901. This outcome is clearly attributable to the workings of 
the recent law that regulates fishing in the interests of conservation. 
The hatching of white perch for the Chesapeake basin was some- 
what more extensive than in 1908, while the yellow-perch work in 
the same region showed a falling off owing to the failure to obtain 
eggs from the first run of fish on the Susquehanna River, where the 
season opened much earlier than was expected. 
The artificial propagation of the Atlantic salmon at the station 
near the Penobscot River in Maine was much less successful than 
formerly. The conditions in this stream, are most unfavorable for 
fish and fish culture, and it is not improbable that the long-continued 
efforts of the Bureau to maintain the run of salmon in the only 
remaining salmon stream on our Atlantic coast will prove unavailing. 
Very boisterous and wintry weather during November interfered 
with the daily trips of the Bureau’s vessels to the cod-fishing grounds 
and often prevented the launching of dories containing spawntakers, 
with the result that the cod operations fell off about 40 per cent as 
compared with 1908, The Norwegian method of obtaining eggs 
from brood cod was followed at the Woods Hole (Massachusetts) 
station on the same scale and with the same success as heretofore. 
The unprecedentedly large production of winter flounder, or flatfish, 
was chiefly due to the inauguration of the cultivation of this species 
at the Boothbay Harbor (Maine) station. The combined output of 
lobster fry at the three marine stations was about 10 per cent smaller 
than in the previous year, while the hatching of pollock at the 
Gloucester (Massachusetts) station was much less extensive. 
The output of whitefish, while less than in 1908, was fairly satis- 
factory. Egg collecting in the Detroit River, one of the most pro- 
ductive fields, was seriously interfered with by extensive government 
improvements which necessitated much blasting. The take of eggs 
at the western end of Lake Erie was larger than ever before, and it is 
thought that the unusual success in this field may have been due to 
the capture there of fish that under ordinary conditions would have 
spawned in the Detroit River. 
