Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-09-18
CLOSED SEASON FOR
STURGEOT PROPOSED

| WASHINGTON Sept. 1G. Hugh NJ
Smith. chief of the Bureau of Fisheries
has recommended to Secretary of Com,
merce Redfieid that every State in whose
waters sturgeon exist or have existed pro-
hibit their capture or sale for a period
of at least ten years.
owing to the decmation of the schools
of breeding fish and to peculiarities in
spawning habits it has been found i'm
possible to inaugurate sturgeon cul-
ture anywhere in this country" said
Commissioner Smith. Attempts at arti-
fetal propagation have proved utter fail
ures wherever tried. The expenditure of
considerable money has sometimes failed
to yield a single batch of eggs suitable for
incubation.
"A possible relief may be afforded
through the transplanting in our waters
of young sturgeon from other countries.
A supply of young fish of very desir-
able species inhabiting the Danube and
the Caspian Sea has been offered by the
Rumanian Government
These Target and inOffensive fish OF
our seaboards, coast rivers and interior
waters We're for years considered to be
not only valueless but nuisances, and
whenever they became entangled in the
fishermen's nets they were knocked on
the head and thrown back into the
water. Even in the present generation
we have seen the shores of the Potomac
River in the vicinity of Mount Vernon
lined with the decomposing ca-uasscs of
these magnificent fish, witnesses to the
cruelty. stupidity and profigacy of man.
The same thing has been observed every
wrere in the country,
when fishermen awakened to the fact
that the eggs of the sturgeon were valu-
able as caviar and the flesh as food
another senseless chapter in The history
of this fish was written, There followed
the most reckless and senseless fishing
with the result that in COM
few years the best and most
productive waters were depleted, and
what should have been made a permanent
fishery of great profit was destroyed.
Even after the great value of the stur-
geon. began TO be appreciated by every
one the immature and unmarketabe fish
incidentally caught in seines, gill nets and
pound nets received no protection what
ever in most waters and were ruthlessly
destroyed as nuiSances, the decline of the
surgeon being thus dnubly accelerated
For example, on the Atlantic coast the
catch of sturgeon fell from 100000 pounds
to less than 1.COO0OO in Is years, on the
Pacific coast a catch OF over 100000
pounds annually in the early sos was fol-
Owed by a few hundred thousand pounds /
IN later years of the same decade, with
no Improvement since that, on the Great
Lakes the y eld declined more than 80 per
,ent. in Is years. In the American waters
If the Lake of the Woods, one OF the /
most recent grounds for the exploration /
If sturgeon, the catch decreased over S6 |
1er cent. in 10 years, Notwithstanding a 4
more active prosecution Of the fishing.
"Tne sturgeon fishery IN American i
gaters as a whole reached its climax 1
,bOut 1890 For two or three years the :
annual catch was Y COO O00 to 100000
pounds At the present time the annual
'leld does not exceed 100000 pounds. ana
everywhere there Is a steady downward
rend In the catch. The scarcity Of stur-
econ and the demand for their flesh and
gss have run up the price 10 an eXtraOr-
iuary lgure, never attained by any other
lsh. either Ia America or elsewhere.
nature female sturgeon often brings the
sherman $50, and II Is a poor fsh that
annot be sold for $50 TO $50 on the rivers
u the East coast"