Report of Commissioner of Fisheries and Game. To his Excellency, Winfield T. Durbin, Governor of Indiana: Sir-I have the honor to present herewith my report as Commissioner of Fisheries and Game for the years 1901 and 1902. In presenting my third biennial report, it is with great pleasure that I state that a remarkable change has taken place in the public mind with respect to the protection, preservation and propagation of fish, game and birds. Six years ago there was a general apathy in the public mind regarding the whole subject. Many thinking people seemed to feel that it was a question that had no bearing upon practical life; that it merely concerned fishermen and hunters. The ambition of the politicians led them to pass any such legislation as would please those who petitioned for it. To this was added the avarice of a few game and fish "hogs" who spent their time principally in netting, trapping, spearing and dynamiting in order to feed the appetite of a few epicures who were regardless of the means by which game and fish were taken, so their palates Icould be tickled. Now all this is changed; the people are steadily learning the economic value of fish, game and birds. The farmer sees the immense value of insectivorous and game birds to his crops and is steadily growing in appreciation of that value. The fish and game laws are more in accord with advanced knowledge upon those subjects and they have been enforced so rigorously that they now command respect. Men are no longer afraid of threats of being "burned out" and are co-operating with the officers better than ever before. There is much yet to be overcome, but the Fish and Game Commission has been established upon a permanent basis and will make no retrograde movement. The Legislature is more favorable to each forward movement, and I look to its next session with a spirit of brightest expectancy. The statistics of various countries show that fishes are, when properly prepared, the best flesh-food man can eat. Such people as the Norwegians, Scotch, Icelanders and South Sea Islanders, who subsist very largely upon a fish diet, are freest from tuberculosis and parasitic diseases. When our State was first settled, fish abounded in all streams, and with the game of the forests, formed the principal food of the hardy and brainy generation of our fathers. Today fish are scarce and game is a delicacy only indulged in by the wealthy. The condition is not an accident, but the result of well known causes. Game and fish both have their natural and artificial enemies. The natural enemies of fish are principally the parasites which prey upon them from within and without, such as water-dogs, mudpuppies, hags, lampreys and other game fishes, as also turtles and snakes. To the above may be added a long list of fish-eating birds, such as ducks, kingfishers, loons, herons and hawks. There are also a great many fish-eating animals, viz., musk rats, minks, raccoons and others. These constitute their natural menaces. Their artificial enemies may be found in the agencies which civilized conditions have begotten. Among these may be mentioned: 1. The devices for wantonly destroying fish, such as spears, trammel nets, fish berries and dynamite. 2. The building of dams which prevent the anadromous fishes from ascending the streams, thus causing depletion. 3. The reduction of our forests, draining of swamps, clearing out of drifts and underground tile-draining. All the above conspire to decrease the amount of rainfall, run it off more rapidly, take away the natural shade and protection for fish and make the streams shallower and warmer. 4. Keeping the water constantly muddy by the refuse from city sewage, dust from sawmills, factories, etc., and by the constant rooting of carp which are filling our streams in many localities to the almost entire destruction of other fish. 5. Greater than all other artificial means is the pollution of our streams with refuse from strawboard mills, oil wells and pulp mills. This refuse covers the spawning beds and prevents the eggs from hatching while it penetrates the gills of the living and kills or drives them out of the streams. The salt water and oil acts in an equally deleterious and fatal manner. SUGGESTIONS. Many of the above causes can not be remedied, but some of them can. The law requiring dam owners to ladder their dams is a good one and is only weak in that it provides no penalty for violators. This should be remedied by the next General Assembly. There should be a penalty of not less than five (5) dollars per day for failure to comply with the law. The vigorous prosecutions and convictions of dynamiters should be continued until that and similar crimes are ranked in the category of horse and cattle thieving. The clearing of forests, draining of swamps, etc., being a part of the natural development of the country, can not be reached by legislation. The pollution of our streams is such a vexed question that it is difficult to make a recommendation concerning it. The building of factories and digging of oil wells is a part of the rapid development of Indiana since gas was discovered. They give employment to many. Any attempt to enforce the present legislation is met with serious protest from the inhabitants and property holders of the towns and cities, many of which owe their population and prosperity to the very developments which pollute the streams. On the other hand, not to enforce the law is to outrage the rights of the farmers and land owners who suffer most from the pollu |