New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-05-31
SH4D OF THE FUTURE.
Fish Noe Matching WM Be Eaten
-Four Years Hence.

This is a story of the shad will eat in
1907 if lucky enough to live that long Uncle
Sam. who is paternai and farseeing by nature,
whatever enyious foreigners may say about him,
has adopted a plan for preventing the threatened
determination Of the favorite fish of the epicure.
He proposes to breed shad faster than the greedy
fishermen can gather them in. The job is not
81. easy one for it takes four years for the shad
10 reach maturity Consequently, fish bred this
year will not be ready for the net until four
years hence Then they viii obligingy place
themselves in the way of being caught by re-
,,rning to the river in which they were turned
aose
At anchor in the Delaware is the government
boat Fish Hawk trim little vessel, captained
by James A. Smith, which does service in all
kinds of odd Notwithstanding deep sea fauna
and sponges, and investigating the sea bed gen
orally in the interest of science-but which is
now engaged in the more important work of
Matching shad. At Gloucester, on the Delaware,
the shad fishing is now at its height. Hun
drods of spectators line the grassgrown BANK
daily to watch the fishermen cast and maui III
the greatest net in the world. In one OF the &C
co1npanying photographs the fishermen are seen
preparing TO take this great seine out for the
cast. 1t is mile long, and requires the exer-
tons of four horses and twenty men to brlhg
ashore again after being dropped INTO the iisSA
s-here the shad are supposed to be thickest
Nhen the net is finally landed and the water Is
icing churned into foam by the frantic efforts
of hundreds of fish to escape the meshes sailors
Of The Fish Hawk gather around the catch and
select such fish as are found by touch TO be
ripa for spawning. These selected shad the
sailors take ashore. The spawn is then squeezed
from the shad into little circular dishes and the
fish turned loose again to spawn afresh. After
the eggs are collected in the dishes, the sailors
<, cure live males from the shad just caught and
sprinkle the eggs with the milt Of the male,
without which the eggs would not hatch. Then
the sailors sit down the nearest fence, with
their pans all in a row. as seen in one OF the
pictures, and carefully pick out from the mass
Of eggs those which III good condition. and
put them all together in one pan. With their
plumber the sailors return to the Fish Hawk.
where the eggs are placed in alright glass jars,
and the Matching process begins
The water in the jars is kept pure by fresh
river water being constantly added. The eggs
hatch in from five to seven days. The most in
tersstinG feature of the progress of the eggs
toward Matching is that through microscope
the fish be seen gradually forming On
holding the microscope to the transparent sur
face Of the eggs the little fish are seen to be
cuIled up, with noses touching the tails. When
they are ready to break loose they give a swish
If the tail, smash the shell and sail free. Al
the throat the ova, IN the shape of a small ball,
udheres and from this the little shad obtains
I, punishment for the first three days of its free
dom. for during that time its mouth is sealed.
When at last its mouth opens, the ova is alb
sorbed. Then the shad forages for itself. The
tiny shad are let loose in the river from big cans
IN Jusands at a time. What becomes of them
in the interval of four years between the time
they are set free to begin their precarious career
and their inevitable finish in the big net is
puzzle to those who have studied their habits, or
tried to.
1t is supposed that the shad retire to deep
water soon they are big enough to roam
around. and stay there Cor four years, return
ing at the end of that time to the rivers of the
coast where they were Matched The shad now