Abstract
IN the year 1871 the Congress of the United States had its attention directed to the alarming decrease in the abundance of its east coast food fishes, and appointed a Commission to investigate the matter, with the idea of preventing the decrease. Prof. Spencer F. Baird, then Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was appointed at the head of this Commission, and in the early summer of 1871, with a small but efficient corps of naturalists, he established himself upon the southern coast of New England at a place called Wood's Holl. Among the most noted of the members of that party were A. E. Verrill, S. J. Smith, and Sanderson Smith, all of whom have remained with the Commission every summer since its foundation. The first work of the Commission was to investigate the fauna, which then was comparatively unknown to science. In this way the food-supply of the food fishes and the food fishes near shore were carefully studied. During this one summer the fauna of this region was so carefully studied specifically that few new species have since been discovered. The main results were set forth in a very extensive report upon the invertebrate animals of Vineyard Sound by Profs. Verrill and Smith, and published in the first Fish Commission Report. In the summer of 1872 Eastport, Maine, was chosen as the station, and here the same systematic study was carried on with the addition of some dredging work done in shallow water with small boats. The summer of 1873 was spent at Portland, Maine; 1874 at Noank, Conn.; 1875 at Wood's Holl again; and 1876 being Centennial year, there was no summer station, but the energies of the Commission were exerted upon the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. In 1877 a part of the year was spent at Halifax, Nova Scotia, arranging a fisheries treaty, and the remainder at Salem, Mass. The headquarters for the summer of 1878 were at Gloucester, Mass. Up to this time, and, in fact, until 1880, the Fish Commission had carried on all its off-shore work in steamers placed at its disposal through the courtesy of the Coast Survey and Navy Department, but had owned no boat of its own with the exception of small sailing-boats and a steam-launch in which the shore work could be done. Thus under a decided disadvantage, it would hardly be expected that a great amount of work could be carefully done; but, notwithstanding this, a large part of the Gulf of Maine was very carefully explored, under the direction of the Fish Commission. During the years 1878 and 1879 the fishermen of Gloucester very materially aided the Commission in its work of investigating the fauna of the shallower water of New England by preserving such specimens of animals as they happened to meet on their fishing trips. Scores of animals new to the American waters were taken from the fishing-banks by these fishermen, and the importance of their work should not be underestimated.
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TARR, R. The United States Fish Commission . Nature 31, 128–130 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/031128d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/031128d0