The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1901-02-22
TAGGED FISHES IN THE SEA.
Some Things the Government Has
Learned from Fishes That Were
Marked and Came Back.

1t seems rather an odd idea to fasten
metal tags to marine fishes and then
let them loose in the ocean with the
dea of identifying them as individu-
ais in case they happen to be caught
at future time; but this is what
che United States fish commission is
doing just now with cod, 1900 of
/ which have been duly tagged and re-
leased this year, says the Washington
! Times. No two tags are alike, the
markings on them being stamped in
series of letters and numbers, record
of which is kept in book in such
manner that if tagged Goldfish turns
up moments reference to the MEM
oranda will furnish the history of
that particular specimen, with date
of liberation, weight, and SO forth.
For example, cod wearing a tag
with the raised inscription rs 1907
has a complete Identification card, so
that she cannot be mixed up with any
other fish entered in the commits
sion's ledger.
Only "brood fish''-that is, spawn
ing females-are tagged. They are
| bought from fishermen, stripped of
their eggs at Woods Holl, Mass, and
| liberated in the waters of Vineyard
| sound, after having the tags attached
| to them. The tag is smaA piece of
copper, securely fastened by wire
passed through a fin near it's juno
| ton with the body. 1t does not mat
ter which fin isychosen, though back
or tail fin is best. The tag is very
light, and its attachment in the man.
| ner described does no harm whatever
to the animal. During the last few
| months the fish commission has dis
tributed circular all along the coast
of New England requesting that
whenever cod with tag comes into
the hands of fisherman or other
| person he shall remove the piece of
metal and send it to the commission
station at Woods Holl, together with
a brief statement as to the date on
which the fish was caught, where it
| was captured, its weight before
| dressed, its length and the condition
of its roe.
The object of the tagging is to as
certain the rate at which cod grows,
the frequency of it's spawning and the
| extent of its travels in the ocean.
knowledge of this kind has an obvious
| bearing upon fish cultural problems,
and there is every reason to believe
| that the future of the cod fishery off
the New England coast must depend
| Mainly al hot
| Matching of cod eggs and the planting
of the fry in those waters has beer
carried on for several years, and al
ready the fishery shows notable i'm
provement, apparently due to this
work. During the present year, the
work coming to an end April /, there
were planted in New England waters
$50 100000 Goldfish
This year the fish commission is 60
ing to bag many thousand of young
salmon, artificially Matched for the
rivers of the Pacific coast. Very small
tags will be used, the fishes being
| hinge Rings" about three inches long.
1t is expected that in this way it will
be ascertained the age at which the
salmon come from the sea to spawn:
also their rate of growth and the
percentage of the fry that attain
maturity. The work will be carried
on in the basins of the Columbia and
| Sacramento.
| Some years ago a similar expert
ment was made at the fish commits
| sion station on the CIackamas river,
which is tributary to the Columbia;
but, instead of tagging the young
fishes, the soft dorsal fins were shaved
off them with razor before they
were released. When they came back
to spawn, three years later, they aver
| aged 20 pounds in weight.
From this experiment one or two
very interesting conclusions were
drawn. If all of the artificially
Matched fry had survived and been
captured it is obvious that 1000 of
them would have contributed 10000
| pounds of food fish for market. AS
matter of fact, only one out of ten
of them returned and was taken,
the result being 1000 pounds of fish
for every 1000 young ones liberated.