REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR, BUREAU OF FISHERIES, Washington, December 26, 1911. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith a report of the operations of the Bureau of Fisheries for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911. PROPAGATION OF FISHES. GENERAL REVIEW OF THE WORK. The fish-cultural operations of the Bureau, consisting of the propagation and distribution of fishes for public and private waters in the interior sections of the country and of the lobster and important marine fishes to replenish the waters along the north Atlantic seaboard did not vary materially from those of preceding years. The efforts were directed chiefly toward the development of present resources and the increase of the output by the extension of operations over a wider territory in fields contiguous to existing stations. The possibilities for fish-cultural work are practically unlimited, being gauged only by the funds and experienced men available for opening up new fields. This is particularly true with reference to the Pacific coast salmons, the trouts of the Rocky Mountain region, the commercial fishes of the Great Lakes, and the anadromous and marine species of the Atlantic coast. With the basses, sunfishes, and catfishes, whose eggs can not be handled artificially and which are. propagated under natural conditions in ponds, a more thorough understanding of the requirements of food supply and environment has carried this work also beyond the experimental stage and to equal possibilities of cultivation. One new station was added to the service with the completion of the plant at Homer, Minn., where fish-cultural work was inaugurated at the beginning of the year. The stations operated numbered in all 36 permanent and 90 auxiliary and collecting stations, located in 33 States. At these stations upward of 40 species of food and game fishes were handled. Fish-cultural operations at the various stations are governed largely by meteorological conditions; floods, droughts, storms, and abnormal water temperatures in the spawning season hamper the work and necessarily cause variations in the egg collections from year to year, regardless of carefully executed plans. While adverse weather curtailed the egg-take of important species in some sections, substantial gains were made in other fields, and the outcome of the year's work was the largest output of fish and eggs in the history of the Bureau, the total being 3,646,294,535, or 12.83 per cent greater than in 1910. This favorable showing is largely accounted for by the adoption of new methods and the utilization of improved appliances, resulting in increased efficiency and diminished expense. The year's distributions of fish to public and private waters involved railroad travel approximating 100,915 miles by the Bureau's cars and 319,819 miles by detached messengers. The amount of free transportation allowed was a little over one-sixth of the number of miles traveled. The following table summarizes the distribution of fish and eggs for the year: SUMMARIZED STATEMENT OF DISTRIBUTION OF FISH AND EGGS, FISCAL YEAR 1911. Of these distributions 550,470,414 eggs, 1,029,800 fry, and 1,060 larger fish were delivered to various State fish commissions, and 86,000 eggs, 6,000,000 fry, and 2,050 older fish were furnished for shipment to foreign countries. These transactions are shown in detail in the accompanying statements. SHIPMENTS OF FISH AND EGGS TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES, FISCAL YEAR 1911. Notwithstanding the heavy increases in output shown from year to year, it has been impossible to keep pace with the needs of public and private waters. The rapidly increasing population and consequent opening up of new territory, the changed physical conditions of the country, continuous expansion of the fisheries, lax enforcement of fishery laws by many States, and total disregard of fishery interests by others-all of these causes combine to render imperative the greatest possible exertions on the part of the Bureau. The benefits accruing from the Bureau's efforts are manifested through the widespread interest in the work by people in all sections of the country. The applications for food and game fishes received during the year numbered 10,393, and over half of them were for the black basses, crappies, sunfishes, and catfishes, for stocking artificial ponds on farms. The popularity of this branch of the work is constantly increasing with the fuller realization that the maintenance of private fishponds can be made a valuable adjunct of farming, as a food supply for home consumption, and as a source of revenue. The species propagated in larger numbers in 1911 than in 1910 included the chinook salmon, steelhead trout, brook trout, rainbow trout, grayling, pike perch, yellow perch, white perch, smallmouth black bass, buffalofish, pollock, haddock, and lobster. The output. of Atlantic salmon was double that of any previous year. A marked falling off is shown in the output of blueback salmon at the Afognak (Alaska) station, due to the unaccountably small run of fish in streams tributary to Litnik Lake. Fish-cultural operations in connection with this station were undertaken at Malena Lake, heretofore regarded as a field of sufficient productiveness to warrant the establishment there of an auxiliary station, but the total collections of eggs at both places amounted to only half the take of the preceding year at the main station alone. At the Yes Bay (Alaska) station, on the other hand, more favorable weather conditions resulted in a large run of blueback salmon. The hatchery was filled to its capacity with eggs, and a sufficient number of fish to have produced fully 10,000,000 more were allowed to escape because of lack of facilities for handling them. There was a slight decrease in the output of some of the species handled at the Pacific coast stations, but the work in general was satisfactory. An average run of chinook salmon occurred in the Sacramento River, but low-water stages in tributary streams prevented many of the fish from reaching their customary spawning grounds and large numbers of eggs were deposited in the main river. Later in the season freshets carried away the retaining racks, per |