Various - New England Salmon Hatcheries and Salmon Fisheries in the Late 19th Century
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Various >> New England Salmon Hatcheries and Salmon Fisheries in the Late 19th Century
NEW ENGLAND SALMON HATCHERIES AND SALMON FISHERIES
IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY
CONTENTS
ARTICLE
I. Some Results of the Artificial Propagation of Maine and
California Salmon in New England and Canada, Recorded in
the Years 1879 and 1880
II. Sketch of the Penobscot Salmon-Breeding Establishment (1883)
III. Penning of Salmon in Order to Secure Their Eggs (1884)
IV. Memoranda Relative to Inclosures for the Confinement of Salmon
Drawn from Experience at Bucksport, Penobscot River, Maine
(1884)
V. Report on the Schoodic Salmon Work of 1884-85
VI. Methods Employed at Craig Brook Station in Rearing Young
Salmonid Fishes (1893)
VII. Notes on the Capture of Atlantic Salmon at Sea and in the
Coast Waters of the Eastern States (1894)
ARTICLE I
SOME RESULTS OF THE ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF MAINE AND CALIFORNIA
SALMON IN NEW ENGLAND AND CANADA, RECORDED IN THE YEARS 1879 AND 1880
Compiled By The United States Fish Commissioner
_Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission_, Vol. 1, Page 270, 1881.
New Bedford, Mass May 20, 1879.
Prof. S. F. BAIRD:
Sir: I have just been in the fish market and a crew were bringing in
their fish from one of the "traps." A noticeable and peculiar feature
of the fishery this year is the great numbers of young salmon caught,
especially at the Vineyard, although some few are caught daily at
Sconticut Neck (mouth of our river). There are apparently two different
ages of them. Mostly about 2 pounds in weight (about as long as a large
mackerel) and about one-half as many weighing from 6 to 8 pounds;
occasionally one larger. One last week weighed 33 pounds and one 18
pounds. The fishermen think they are the young of those with which some
of our rivers have been stocked, as nothing of the kind has occurred in
past years at all like this.
JOHN H. THOMSON.
* * * * * *
_Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission_, Vol. 1, Page 271, 1881
New Bedford, Mass. June 1, 1879.
Prof SPENCER F. BAIRD:
SIR: I received yours. I have examined carefully since your letter, but
no salmon have been taken. The run was about the two first weeks in May
and a few the last of April. Mr. Bassett had about 30 to 35 from the
trap at Menimpsha, and 10 or 12 from Sconticut Neck, the mouth of our
river. Mr. Bartlett, at his fish market, had about one dozen; 12 from
the traps near the mouth of Slocum's River, six miles west of here, and
I have heard of two taken at mouth of Westport River.
As to the particular species, I do not get any reliable information, as
so few of our fishermen know anything about salmon, and in fact the men
from the traps on Sconticut Neck did not know what the fish were.
JOHN H. THOMSON.
* * * * * *
FISHING ITEMS. "A ten-pound salmon and seventeen tautog, weighing over
one hundred pounds, were taken from the weirs of Magnolia, Thursday
night. This is the first salmon caught off Cape Ann for over thirty
years. On Saturday morning three more large salmon were taken and 150
large mackerel. The fishermen are highly elated at the prospect of
salmon catching." (Cape Ann Advertiser, June 6, 1879.)
* * * * * *
[Postscript to a letter from Monroe A. Green, New York State Fishery
Commission, to Fred Mather, June 9, 1879.]
"P. S.--Kennebec salmon caught to-day in the Hudson River at Bath near
Albany weighing twelve and a half pounds, sold for 40 cents per pound.
The first that have been caught for years."
* * * * * *
STATE OF MAINE, DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES,
Bangor, August 25, 1879. [Extracts.]
DEAR PROFESSOR: We have had a great run of salmon this year, and
consisting largely of fish planted by us in the Penobscot four or five
years ago, so far as we could judge; there were a very large number,
running from 9 to 12 pounds. The east and west branches of the Penobscot
report a great many fish in the river. On the Mattawamkeag where we
put in 250,000 and upwards, in 1875 and 1876, a great many salmon
are reported trying to get over the lower dam at Gordon's Falls,
13 feet high. These fish were put in at Bancroft, Eaton and Kingman, on
the European and North American Railroad. The dam at Kingham is 13 feet;
at Slewgundy, 14 feet; at Gordon's Falls, 13 feet and yet a salmon has
been hooked on a trout fly at Bancroft and salmon are seen in the river
at Kingman, and between the dams at Slewgundy and Gordon's Falls. The
dealers in our city have retailed this season 50 tons Penobscot salmon,
and about 3 tons Saint John salmon; it all sells as Penobscot salmon.
Saint John salmon costs here, duty and all included, about 14 cents per
pound. Our first salmon sells at $1 per pound, and so on down to 12 1/2
cents the last of the season.'
Salmon at Bucksport has sold to dealers here at 8 cents. Two tons taken
at Bucksport and Orland in 24 hours. Average price at retail here for
whole season, 25 cents.
Truly, yours,
E. M. Stillwell.
* * * * * *
STATE OF MAINE, DEPARTMENT OF FISHERIES,
Bangor, October 4, 1879.
DEAR PROFESSOR: My delay in replying to your kind letter has been from
no want of courtesy, but a desire to send you the required "data" you
asked. Neither myself nor Mr. Atkins have been able to procure them. The
weir fishermen keep no records at all, and it is difficult to obtain
from them anything reliable; while the fishermen above tidewater are a
bad set of confirmed poachers, whose only occupation is hunting and
fishing both in and out of season. They are always jealous and loth to
let us know how good a thing they make of it, for fear of us and fear of
competition from their own class.
Four or five years since I put in some 300,000 salmon fry into the
Mattawamkeag at Bancroft, Eaton, Kingsmore, and at Mattawamkeag village.
There are three dams between Mattawamkeag and Bancroft--none less than
12 feet high. About six weeks since Mr. Nathaniel Sweat, a railroad
conductor on the European and North American Railroad, while fishing for
trout from a pier above the railroad bridge at Bancroft, hooked a large
salmon and lost his line and flies. Salmon in great numbers have been
continually jumping below the first dam, which is called "Gordon's
Falls."
My colleague, Everett Smith, of Portland, a civil engineer, while making
a survey for a fishway, counted 15 salmon jumping in 30 minutes. A Mr.
Bailey, who is foreman of the repair shop at Mattawamkeag walked up to
the falls some three weeks since entirely out of curiosity excited by
the rumors of the sight, and counted 60 salmon jumping in about an hour,
within half or three-quarters of a mile of the falls. This is on the
Mattawamkeag, which is a great tributary of the Penobscot.
On the east branch of the Penobscot there has been a great run of
salmon. An explorer on the Wassattaquoik reported the pools literally
black with salmon. A party of poachers, hearing the rumor, went in from
the town of Hodgon and killed 25. I inclose you a letter to me from Mr.
Prentiss, one of our most wealthy and prominent merchants, which speaks
for itself: I will be obliged to you if you will return this, as I shall
have occasion to use it in my report.
On the West branch of the Penobscot I hear reports of large numbers of
salmon, but the breaking of the two great dams at Chesancook and the
North Twin Dam, which holds back the great magazine of water of the
great tributary lakes which feed the Penobscot, which is used to drive
the logs cut in the winter, through the summer's drought, has let up all
the fish which hitherto were held back until the opening of the gates to
let the logs through. These fish would not, of course, be seen, as they
would silently make their way up.
I regret that I have nothing of more value to give you. Hoping that this
small contribution may at least cheer you as it has me,
I remain, truly, yours,
E. M. STILWELL, Commissioner of Fisheries for State of Maine.
* * * * * *
Prof. SPENCER F. BAIRD,
United States Commissioner Fish and Fisheries.
BANGOR, October 3, 1879.
M. STILWELL, Esq.,
DEAR SIR: Prof. C. E. Hamlin of Harvard, and I made a trip to Mount
Katahdin last month for scientific examination and survey of the
mountain. I had been salmon fishing in July on the Grand Bonaventure, on
Bay of Chaleur, and I could not see why we could not catch salmon on the
east branch of the Penobscot at the Hunt place where we crossed it on
our way in to Katahdin. I thought the pool from mouth of Wassatiquoik to
the Hunt place, about a half-mile, must be an excellent salmon pool, and
my guide and the people there confirmed this opinion. They said over a
hundred salmon had been taken in that one pool this season. The nearest
settlement, and only one on the whole east branch, is about six miles
out from there, and the young men go on Sundays and fish with
drift-nets. No regular fishing for market--only a backwoods local supply
can be used. These fish were about of one size--say 8 to 11 pounds.
There were never enough fish here before to make it worth while for them
to drift for them. A few years ago no salmon were caught there at all.
Twenty-two years ago, before our fish laws were enacted, the farmer at
the Hunt place used to have a net that went entirely across the river
clear to the bottom, which he kept all the time stretched across, and he
only used to get two or three salmon a week. I was there August, 1857,
with Mr. Joseph Carr, an old salmon fisher, and we fished for ten days
and could not get a rise. The net had been taken up, because the farmer
did not get fish enough to pay for looking after it.
But the stocking the river makes it good fishing and I intend to try the
east branch next season with the fly.
Very truly,
HENRY M. PRENTISS.
* * * * * *
October 13, 1879
East Windsor Hill, Conn.
Professor BAIRD:
DEAR SIR: It may be of interest to you to know that your salmon are not
all lost. Last Friday, 10th, I was with a party of three fishing in
Snipsic Lake, and one of our party caught a salmon that weighed 1 3/4
pounds. This is the second one taken since the pond was stocked as I was
told. The other was caught this summer and weighed 12 ounces.
Cannot something be done to save our fish in Connecticut River? There is
an establishment at Holyoke, Mass., and another at Windsor Locks, Conn.,
that are manufacturing logs into paper, and I am told that the chemicals
used for that purpose are let off into the river twice a day, and that
the fish for half a mile come up as though they had been cockled.
Both of these factories are at the foot of falls where the fish collect
and stop in great numbers and are all killed. Our shores and sand-bars
are literally lined with dead fish. Three salmon have been found among
them within two miles of my office. They were judged to weigh 12, 20 and
25 pounds. The dead fish are so numerous that eagles are here after
them. I have received nine that have been shot here in the past two
seasons.
I have written you in order that the fish commissioners might stop this
nuisance and save the fish that they have taken so much pains to
propagate.
Truly yours,
Wm Hood, East Windsor Hill, Conn., October 13, 1879
* * * * * *
SAINT STEPHEN, March 1, 1880.
Prof. SPENCER F. BAIRD
U. S. Commissioner Fish and Fisheries:
Dear Sir: I send you remarks in relation to the Restigouche and Saint
Croix Rivers, which, though crude, I am sure are quite correct, as they
are either taken from the official statistics, or are facts of which I
am myself cognizant. You may, if of use, publish any part of them.
I very much wish we could procure some young shad for the Saint Croix;
this fish was once very abundant, and perhaps would be again if
introduced. I know you have been very successful in restocking the
Connecticut. Our old people deplore the loss of the shad--say it was a
much better food-fish than the salmon. I do a great deal of shooting,
and am much interested in ornithology, and specimens of our birds that
you might want I should be happy to lookout for; do a good deal of coast
shooting winters; have been hopefully looking for a Labrador duck for a
number of seasons--fear they have totally disappeared.
I have nice spring-water conducted to my house and think of doing a
little fish-hatching in a small way. The amount of water I can spare is
a stream of about half inch diameter; the force will be considerable, as
the water rises to top of my house, some 50 feet above where I should
set trays. I write to you to ask what hatching apparatus would be best
to get, where to buy, and probable cost. I am trying to get some
sea-trout ova to hatch in it. I presume all your California ova have
been disposed of ere this.
FRANK TODD.
* * * * * *
SAINT STEPHEN, March 1, 1880.
Prof SPENCER F. BAIRD, U. S. Commissioner Fish and Fisheries:
SIR: In regard to the Saint Croix, would say, that it was once one of
the most prolific salmon rivers in New Brunswick, but owing to the
erection of impassable dams, fifteen or twenty years ago, this valuable
fish had almost entirely disappeared. At about this time fishways were
placed in all the dams, and gradually salmon began to increase, but the
first great stimulus was given some ten years ago by the distribution of
some hundreds of thousands of young salmon in the headwaters, by the
fishery commissioners of Maine.
The Dobsis Club also placed in the Saint Croix some 200,000 or more from
their hatchery, a portion being the California salmon. With these
exceptions our river has had no artificial aid, but for the last five
years the number of salmon has largely increased, due mainly, no doubt,
to the deposits before mentioned.
The fish ways are generally in good condition (although some
improvements will be made), and fish have easy access to headwaters,
That large numbers go up and spawn is evidenced by the large numbers of
smolt seen at the head of tidal water in the spring, many being taken by
boys with the rod. I have reason to expect that our government will
hereafter distribute annually in the Saint Croix a goodly number of
young salmon which, together with the contributions of the Maine
commissioners will soon make this fish again abundant. Alewives are very
abundant and apparently increasing every year. Shad that were once
plenty have entirely disappeared. I very much wish that the river could
be stocked with this valuable fish; possibly you could kindly assist us
in this.
Landlocked salmon (here so called) are, I think, nearly or quite as
plenty at Grand Lake Stream as they were ten years ago; this, I think,
is almost entirely due to the hatchery under the charge of Mr. Atkins;
the tannery at the head of the stream having entirely destroyed their
natural spawning beds, the deposit of hair and other refuse being in
some places inches deep. The twenty-five per cent. of all fish hatched,
which are honestly returned to our river, is, I think, each year more
than we would get by the natural process, under present circumstances,
in ten years.
FRANK TODD.
* * * * * *
SAINT STEPHEN, N. B., DOMINION OF CANADA.
Prof. SPENCER F. BAIRD, U. S. Commissioner Fish and Fisheries:
SIR: I think it has been clearly demonstrated in this Dominion that by
artificial propagation and a fair amount of protection, all natural
salmon rivers may be kept thoroughly stocked with this fish, and rivers
that have been depleted, through any cause, brought back to their former
excellence.
I would instance the river Restigouche in support of the above
statement.
This river, which empties into the Bay of Chaleur, is now, and always
has been, the foremost salmon river in New Brunswick, both as to size
and number of fish. It has not a dam or obstruction to the free passage
of fish from its mouth to its source, yet up to 1868 and 1869 the
numbers of salmon had constantly decreased. This, no doubt, was
occasioned by excessive netting at the mouth, and spearing the fish
during the summer in the pools; natural production was not able to keep
up with this waste.
In the year 1868 the number of salmon was so small that the total catch
by anglers was only 20 salmon, and the commercial yield only 37,000
pounds. At about this date, the first salmon hatchery of the Dominion
was built upon this river and a better system of protection inaugurated;
every year since some hundreds of thousands of young salmon have been
hatched and placed in these waters, and the result has been, that in
1878 one angler alone (out of hundreds that were fishing the river)
in sixteen days killed by his own rod eighty salmon, seventy-five of
which averaged over twenty-six pounds each; while at the same time the
numbers that were being taken by the net fishermen below, for commercial
purposes, were beyond precedent, amounting in that one division alone
(not counting local and home consumption) to the enormous weight of
500,000 pounds, and the cash receipts for salmon in Restigouche County
that year amounted to more than $40,000, besides which some $5,000 was
expended by anglers; this result was almost entirely brought about by
artificial propagation. A new hatchery of size sufficient to produce
five million young fish annually will no doubt soon be erected by the
Dominion Government upon this river.
A somewhat similar record might be given of the river Saguenay. Some
years ago anglers and net fishers of this river said it was useless to
lease from the department, as the scarcity of salmon was such as not to
warrant the outlay. A hatchery was built, and this state of things is
now wonderfully changed; so much so, indeed, that in 1878 salmon, from
the great numbers which were taken at the tidal fisheries, became a drug
in the market, selling often as low as three cents per pound, and
angling in the tributaries was most excellent.
Some one hundred million young salmon have been artificially hatched and
distributed in the waters of the Dominion during the last few years, and
new government hatcheries are constantly being erected.
Yours, &c.,
FRANK TODD, Fishery Overseer, Saint Croix District.
ARTICLE II
SKETCH OF THE PENOBSCOT SALMON-BREEDING ESTABLISHMENT
by
Charles G. Atkins
Written by request of Prof. S. F. Baird, for the London Exhibition,
1883
_Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission_, Vol. 3, Page 373, 1883
The rivers of the United States tributary to the Atlantic, north of the
Hudson, were, in their natural state, the resorts of the migratory
salmon, _Salmo salar_, and most of them continued to support important
fisheries for this species down to recent times. The occupation of the
country by Europeans introduced a new set of antagonistic forces which
began even in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to operate
against the natural increase and maintenance of the salmon and other
migratory fishes.
In many localities the closing of smaller streams by dams, and the
pursuit of the fish with nets and other implements, had already begun
to tell on their number; but it was not until the present century that
the industrial activities of the country began to seize upon the water
power of the larger rivers and to interrupt in them by lofty dams the
ascent of salmon to their principal spawning grounds. These forces were
rapid in their operations, aided as they were by a greatly augmented
demand for food from a rapidly increasing population.
In 1865 the salmon fisheries were extinct in all but five or six of the
thirty rivers known to have been originally inhabited by them. In many
of these rivers the last salmon had been taken, and in others the
occurrence of individual specimens was extremely rare. Among the
exhausted rivers may be mentioned the Connecticut, 380 miles long; the
Merrimack,180 miles long; the Saco,120 miles long; the Androscoggin,
220 miles long; and some twenty smaller rivers. There still survived
salmon fisheries in the following rivers, namely, the Penobscot, the
Kennebec, the Denny's, the East Machias, the Saint Croix, and the
Aroostook, a tributary of the Saint John. The most productive of these
was the Penobscot, yielding 5,000 to 10,000 salmon yearly. The Kennebec
occasionally yielded 1,200 in a year, but generally much less. The
other rivers were still less productive.
The movement for the re-establishment of these fisheries originated in
action of the legislature of New Hampshire, seconded by that of the
neighboring state of Massachusetts, having in view primarily the
fisheries of the Merrimack and Connecticut Rivers. The course of the
Merrimack lies wholly within the states of New Hampshire and
Massachusetts; that of the Connecticut lies partly in the state of
Connecticut, and many of its tributaries are in the state of Vermont.
These two states were therefore early interested in the project, and
their action soon led to similar exertions on the part of Rhode Island
and Maine. Within the borders of the six states mentioned, collectively
known as "New England," are all of the rivers of the United States
known to have been frequented by the sea-going _Salmo salar_, with the
possible exception of certain rivers, tributary to the Saint Lawrence,
in the northern part of New York.
The governments of these states having appointed boards of
commissioners to whom was confided the task of restocking the exhausted
rivers, other states, one after another, adopted like measures, and in
1872 the United States Government established a commission to inquire
into the condition and needs of the fisheries in general, with
authority to take steps for the propagation of food fishes.
The New England commissioners turned their attention at once to the two
most important of their migratory fishes, the salmon and the shad. The
utter extermination of salmon from most of their rivers compelled them
to consider the best mode of introducing them from abroad.
Agents were sent to the rivers of Canada, where for several years they
were permitted to take salmon from their spawning beds, and some
hundreds of thousands of salmon eggs were thus obtained and hatched
with a measure of success. After a few seasons permits for such
operations were discontinued, and the only foreign source of supply
thereafter remaining open to the states was found in the breeding
establishments under control of the Canadian Government, and even these
were practically closed by the high price at which the eggs were
valued.
In 1870 it had become clear that to a continuation of efforts it was
essential that a new supply of salmon ova should be discovered.
Attention was now directed to the Penobscot River in the state of
Maine, which, though very unproductive compared with Canadian rivers,
might yet, perhaps, be made to yield the requisite quantity of spawn.
A preliminary examination of the river brought out the following facts:
The Penobscot is about 225 miles in length. The upper half of its
course and nearly all of its principal tributaries lie in an
uninhabited wilderness, and in this district are the breeding grounds
of the salmon. The fisheries, however, are all on the lower part of the
river and in the estuary into which it empties, Penobscot Bay. There
was no means of knowing how great a proportion of the salmon entering
this river succeeded in passing safely the traps and nets set to
intercept them, but supposing half of them to escape capture there
would still be but about 6,000 fish of both sexes scattered through the
hundreds of miles of rivers and streams forming the headwaters of the
Penobscot.
It was very doubtful whether they would be congregated about any one
spot in sufficient numbers to supply a breeding station, and it would
be impracticable to occupy any widely extended part of the river, on
account of the difficulties of communication. At the mouth of the
river, on the other hand, the supply of adult salmon could be found
with certainty, but they must be obtained from the ordinary salmon
fisheries in June and held in durance until October or November, and
the possibility of confining them without interfering seriously with
the normal action of their reproductive functions was not yet
established. The latter plan was finally adopted, and in 1871 the first
attempt at this method of breeding salmon was instituted by the
commissioners' of Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. The site fixed
upon for an inclosure was at Craig's Pond Brook in the town of Orland,
and arrangements for a supply of fish were made with two fishermen of
Verona at the very mouth of the river. The salmon first brought were
confined in a newly constructed artificial pond in the brook, which was
of such remarkable purity that a small coin could be distinctly seen at
the depth of 7 feet. All of these died except a few which after a short
stay were removed to other quarters. The most prominent symptom was the
appearance of a white fungoid growth in patches upon the exterior of
the fish. In a lake (locally designated as Craig's Pond) of equal
purity, but greater depth, several of these diseased fish recovered.