Part 5 (2/2)

From the known total outlay for food, attendance, and superintendence a suitable allowance is made for the maintenance of the older fish, and the balance is charged to the fry. By this method we arrive at the following results:

Cost...................Total........Per fish.

Food $155.00 $0.00065 Attendance 99.79 .00042 Superintendence 205.96 .00086 Total 460.75 0.00193

Applied to the rearing operations of 1891, a similar calculation gives us this result: The fry that were carried through the season from June to October, inclusive, cost, for food, attendance, and superintendence, $0.0081 each; that is, about four-fifths of a cent each for the term of five months.

ARTICLE VII

NOTES ON THE CAPTURE OF ATLANTIC SALMON AT SEA AND IN THE COAST WATERS OF THE EASTERN STATES

By Hugh M. Smith, M. D., a.s.sistant in charge of Division of Statistics and Methods of the Fisheries.

_Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission_, Vol. 14, Page 95, 1894.

In carrying out its most important function--the maintenance and increase of the supply of food fishes--the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, in addition to direct efforts to increase the abundance of fishes naturally inhabiting our various rivers, lakes, and coast waters, has given considerable attention to the experimental introduction of fishes into regions or streams to which they were not native.

The wonderful success which has followed the planting of shad and striped ba.s.s fry in the waters of the Pacific coast is well known. The results attending the recent attempts of the Commission to establish a run of salmon (_Salmo salar_) in some of the large rivers of the Atlantic coast have been so noteworthy in the case of the Hudson as to afford reasonable ground for expecting the early inauguration of a regular fishery, should the present rate of increase in the abundance of the fish be maintained. Similar striking results may also be antic.i.p.ated in all the more northern streams of the east coast, including the Housatonic, Connecticut, and Merrimac, in which salmon were at one time found in abundance and are now taken in small numbers, if the ascent of the adult fish to the headwaters for the purpose of sp.a.w.ning is permitted and if sufficiently extensive fish-cultural operations are continued.

The primary purpose of this paper is to record some of the apparent results of salmon propagation in our rivers as shown by the occurrence of the fish at points on the coast or at sea more or less remote from the places where fry have been deposited.

While an interesting and instructive compilation might be made of the instances of the capture of salmon in the Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Potomac, and other rivers in which the fish has been acclimated, such a work is not necessary in view of the notice which has already been accorded the matter in the public press and in the reports of several of the State fish commissions, notably the New York commission.

So much yet remains to be learned regarding the lines of migration of the salmon to and from the rivers, its winter habitat, the existence of an ”instinct of nativity” which is supposed to impel the return of the fish to the place where hatched, the extent of the coastwise distribution of salmon originally belonging in a given river, and numerous other practical and scientific questions, that the presentation of any data bearing on the occurrence of the fish outside of the rivers may be regarded as acceptable and timely.

In an interesting article on ”Salmon at Sea,” communicated to the issue of _Forest and Stream_ for February 18, 1892, Mr. A. N. Cheney, the well-known angling expert and writer on fish-cultural matters, discusses the question of the whereabouts of salmon after they leave the rivers, and quotes the following from a previous contribution by himself on the subject:

”There is a certain mystery about the habits and movements of the sea salmon, after it has left the fresh-water rivers in which it sp.a.w.ns and gone down to the sea, that never has been satisfactorily explained. One theory is that all the salmon of the rivers along a coast may journey down to the sea, and then move ultimately in one great body southward along the coast until they find water of suitable temperature, with an abundance of food, in which to spend their time in growing fat until the sp.a.w.ning instinct warns them to return, when they proceed northward, each river school entering its own particular river as the main school arrives opposite the river month.

”Another theory is that the salmon of each river, as they arrive at its mouth after descending from its headwaters, go out to sea sufficiently far to find the conditions of temperature and food which suit them, and there they remain, separate from the salmon of other rivers, until it is time for them to return to fresh water. Considering the certainty with which the salmon of any particular river return again to the stream of their birth, the latter theory seems the more tenable of the two.”

Another object of this paper is to solicit correspondence from fishermen, especially those engaged in the coast and offsh.o.r.e fisheries, concerning the circ.u.mstances of the capture of salmon in their nets, and to bring to their attention the opportunity they will thus have of increasing the knowledge of the movements of the salmon, of aiding in the determination of the results of fishcultural operations, and of ultimately if not immediately benefiting themselves by supplying information that will conduce to the most effective application of artificial methods.

To this end it is the intention to send the paper to fishermen engaged in the mackerel, menhaden, and other sea fisheries, and to operators of pound nets, traps, and other sh.o.r.e appliances, with the hope that instances of the capture of salmon may be communicated to this Commission and notes on the size, condition, movements, etc., of the fish be furnished.

To aid in the identification of the salmon when caught by fishermen who have not previously met with the fish, a figure is presented.

In this connection mention may be made of the chinook or quinnat salmon of the Pacific coast (_Oncorhynchus chouicha_), fry of which have been extensively planted in eastern waters by the U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Up to and including the year 1880, about 12,000,000 fry were deposited in rivers and other waters tributary to the Atlantic.

While a few relatively large examples have been taken, this office has no information to show that the attempts to acclimate this species on the Atlantic coast have as yet been successful. In 1891 a few thousand yearling salmon were placed in New York waters tributary to the sea.

The possibility of the survival and growth of some of these and of the large early colonies prompts this reference to the matter and suggests the publication of the accompanying figure of the species, to afford a basis for distinguis.h.i.+ng the two kinds of salmon, which closely resemble each other. To further aid in the identification of the two species the following key has been prepared:

Rays in a.n.a.l fin, 9; scales between gill opening and base of tail, 120; branchiostegals (false gill openings), 11 ..........ATLANTIC SALMON.

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