The Chautauquan, Vol. 05, May 1885, No. 8

by Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle; Chautauqua Institution

I think I may truthfully assert that very much of the improvement in the condition of our fisheries has been due to the wise and energetic management of our Commissioner, Prof. Spencer F. Baird. Himself an eminent man of science, for forty years in the front rank of biological investigation, the author of several hundred scientific memoirs, no one could realize more thoroughly the importance of a scientific foundation for the proposed work.

His position as the head of that influential scientific organization, given by an Englishman to the United States, “for the increase and diffusion of useful knowledge among men,” enabled him to secure at once the aid of a body of trained specialists.

I wish to emphasize the idea that the work of the Fish Commission owes its value solely and entirely to the fact of its being based upon an extensive and long continued system of scientific investigations, for the purpose of discovering unknown facts, the knowledge of which is essential to the welfare of the fisheries, the economical management of the national fishery resources, the success of fish culture, and the intelligent framing of fishery laws.

The resolution establishing the Commission requires that its head shall be a civil officer of the government, of proved scientific and practical acquaintance with the fishes of the coast—thus formally fixing its scientific character.

The work of the Commission is and always has been under the direction of eminent and representative scientific specialists, acting as heads of its several divisions, and the employes, with the exception of a very limited number of clerks, are trained experts, usually scientific students—so exact and special is the training required even for subordinate positions, that in a majority of cases each man employed is the only man in the country who understands and can perform his own individual work.

Pure and applied science have labored together always in the service of the Fish Commission, their representatives working side by side in the same laboratories; indeed, much of the best work in the investigation of the fisheries and in the artificial culture of fishes has been performed by men eminent as zoölogists.

The work of the Fish Commission is naturally divided into three sections:

1. The systematic investigation of the waters of the United States, and the biological and physical problems which they present. The scientific studies of the Commission are based upon a liberal and philosophical interpretation of the law. In making his original plans the Commissioner insisted that to study only the food fishes would be of little importance, and that useful conclusions must needs rest upon a broad foundation of investigations purely scientific in character. The life history of species of economic value should be understood from beginning to end, but no less requisite is it to know the histories of the animals and plants upon which they feed, or upon which their food is nourished; the histories of their enemies and friends, and the friends and foes of their enemies and friends, as well as the currents, temperature and other physical phenomena of the waters in relation to migration, reproduction and growth. A necessary accompaniment to this division is the amassing of material for research to be stored in the National and other museums for future use.

2. The investigation of the methods of fisheries, past and present, and the statistics of production and commerce of fishery products. Man being one of the chief destroyers of fish, his influence upon their abundance must be studied. Fishery methods and apparatus must be examined and compared with those of other lands, that the use of those which threaten the destruction of useful fishes may be discouraged, and that those which are inefficient may be replaced by others more serviceable. Statistics of industry and trade must be secured for the use of Congress in making treaties or imposing tariffs, to show to producers the best markets, and to consumers where and with what their needs may be supplied.

3. The introduction and multiplication of useful food fishes throughout the country, especially in waters under the jurisdiction of the general government, or those common to several states, none of which might feel willing to make expenditures for the benefit of the others. This work, which was not contemplated when the Commission was established, was first undertaken at the instance of the American Fish Cultural Association, whose representatives induced Congress to make a special appropriation for the purpose. This appropriation has since been renewed every year on an increasingly bountiful scale, and the propagation of fish is at present by far the most extensive branch of the work of the Commission, both in respect to number of men employed and quantity of money expended.