Morning journal and courier., 1880-02-05
FISH,

The steamship planned by the United States Fish Commission will be ready for service in & few weeks, and Professor Baird tells the public that it is expected to use the boat in transferring young cod from points on the Massachusetts coast where there is an ample supply of eggs and young fish to points fur ther south on the coasts of New Jersey, Della ware and Virginia, where thereare no fisher ies, and where it is proposed to establish them. Within six, eight or ten years it is hoped to have frst-class cod fisheries several hundred miles further south than we have had them. In short, the Commission con templates that along the Atlantic coast may be duplicated the marine industries of North Europe. We do not need to point out the immense benefit of such work if it can be accomplished, and the success which has at tended previous experiments Is full of prom ise. During the last two years there have been matched and distributed under the au spices of the Commission no less than sixty millions of the best varieties of shad and salmon, and this alone is sufficient to justify the undertaking.
 Few realize what has been accomplished in the propagation and distribution of fish in this country, and what an addition to the re- sources of the people has thus been made. A glance at what has been done in Maine in the matter of salmon may help to make the value of the work plainer. During the last salmon season large quantities of salmon that can only be estimated by tons were taken by fish ermen from the Penobscot river, and the Commissioners ''point with pride" to the fact that this river affords an excellent example of the practical results of protection and arti- fcial propagation of salmop," and to the fur ther fact that the Penobscot is ''the first river on our Atlantic coast to which the salmon have been restored in such numbers as to afford 8 valuable fishery" and they unhesitatingly declare that it is now in every sense "salmon river" '" Since the introduction of artifcially matched fish and their return from the ocean when mature has been made possible, ''the salmon have so increased as to be observed in large numbers where almost unknown for many years previously; and 2 large revenue is de- rived from the catch or nets and weirs in the lower portion of the river" The lowest price reached during last season for Penobscot sal mon was eight cents per pound, the highest one dollar. The average of the season, accord ing to market men, was about twenty-five cents. These were the prices asked by local dealers Some of the salmon taken weighed thirty-five pounds, but the majority were of from four to eleven pounds weight. One fisherman is reported to have taken from his nets, between June and September. no less than 700 fine salmon, averaging ten pounds each, and for which he must have received on an average from twenty to twenty-five cents 8 pound. The seasons work must have netted this man at least $1, 900, probably more, which is pret ty good pay for the time required to watch his nets, overhaul and repair them and attend to the shipment of his fish during two months.
 Other instances where fish have been made to flourish by artificial means might be given, such the stocking of the Sacramento river with shad, which are now very plenty and of fine quality there. Making two blades of grass grow where but one grew before is very use ful occupation, but those who make the waters where there were few or no fish swarm with them are entitled to still higher rank among the benefactors of their kind.