Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-11-22
Aacrcrnlc- s "a. 1aG-4lA5.2ao ner 81. hi

The table gives catch from Cape
Eenry to Cape Cod. Increase Of 1885
over 1850 in quantity, 965, 229 pounds
in value, s67,jSO.
d" While the commercial value Of the
increase s57, 5S0--was not large COM
pared with the whole, that sum was ten
times as great as the yearly sum spent
by the Fish Commission upon the work
Of shad propagation in the rivers refer
red TO.
1T was a physiological necessity, he
said. that shad should enter fresh water
to spawn. Shad eggs might be impreg-
rated in salt water, but would not de-
yelop up to the point Of Matching. The
shad must reach fresh water in numbers
sufficient TO supply by propagation the
annual loss. Originally shad had free
access to the waters Of the country.
Then man began to reduce the spawn
ing area; dams were extended down
the rivers, so that the productive "a
pacity of the rivers by means of natu-
raj propagation was not one half as
great as il had been. Then, factories
have been erected on the rivers, the
spawnng-beds have been destroyed by
sediment or deleterious matter, and
the water rendered unsuitable for
propagation. Last Of all, man
had come with improved ap-
pliances, and pushed his fisheries out
of fresh water into the salt water. So
now G3 per cent. Of the shad caught are
caught in salt water. Counting, then,
the catch in the rivers, after the shad
reached fresh water, 1t was doubtful
whether l per cent.-certalnly not 3
per cent. --survived to reproduce the
species. Upon that small percentage
We depended to keep up the supply Of
shad in the rivers. Under such condi-
tionS the spawning area, being limited,
and the Shad excluded from fresh
water, without the help of artificial
propagation We would not only be able
TO keep up the supply, but the shad
would soon be eXterminated or there
would be such q reduction in numbers
as to render the fisheries Improbable.
They were fast approaching such
crisis in 1879, when the Fish Commits
sion began the work Of shad propaga-
ton. The work Of artificial propaga-
ton had not only held the balance
even, but had determined slight in
crease.
-" Colonel Mcdonald deprecated the
methods employed in Establishing, espe-
cially in the use Of pound-nets. In the
Connecticut river, where pound-nets are
used. a larger part of the catch is taken
in salt water. In the Hudson, as the
laws Of New York do not permit fishing
with pound-nets, the river is not OBJ
structed to the same extent as the Con
necticut is. In the Delaware, where an
increase was shown, there were no
pound-nets. In the case of the CheSa-
peake and its tributaries. showing de-
crease Of 81 per cent, $4,000 Of the
shad caught this year, or more than one
half Of the whole catch, were taken in the
salt water OF the bay. The pound-nets
began at the capes and extended to the
mouth Of the Potomac. Prior to 1877 /
the shad were taken entirely in fresh
water, but now over one half were
caught in salt water. After entering
the Potomac nearly one half of the
catch in that river is made where the
fish cannot spawn. In the Rappahan-
mock one half the catch is on the oys-
fairgrounds, or in brackish water. In
the York river the catch is practically
below Gloucester Point. In the james
river there are no pound-netS, and in that
river we find an increase in the catch.
While the fisheries in the Chesapeake
bay and its tributaries, as a whole,
have fallen off 81 per cent, the de-
crease in the catch in certain rivers is
much greater. The catch in the Sus-
quehanna in 1880 was 6l4,000, against
2l2, 600 in 1885; and in the Potomac,
552,Sj7 in 1880, against Isl, 697 in
1885. The reason Of this, Colonel
thought, is obvious. In
1871 there were no pound-nets in
Chesapeake bay, and no shad were
taken till they entered fresh water.
GilliDg was not prosecuted so low I
down the river as now. In 1880 he
Iound in Chesapeake bay $50 pound |
nets set in the track followed by the
had along the western shore, and
through these the Ggb had 10 I
'un a gauntlet up to the mouths
4 the rivers. Now there were
900 pouDd-nets occupying the west
IN shores of the bay, and excluding
be fish from the fresh water. The ef-
ect Of the saltwater catch is to dimin-
Sd natural reproduction aud to invoke
rtideial propagation as necessary aid
0 the fisheries. IL all shad were ex-