will protect the black bass during the spawning season, and, it is to be
hoped, will increase the supply.

PURSE NETS

While purse and buck nets were not entirely eliminated in our Bay
waters, yet there were changes in the present law that will go far
toward curtailing the operation of these nets. The recodification of the
fish laws provided that the season on purse and buck net fishing begins
July 15th instead of June 15th and it also prohibits the use of any
such nets in any of the tributaries of the Bay.

FISH HATCHERY WORK

The Department, with the funds acquired from the Anglers' License
Law, has been enabled to increase its hatchery facilities for fresh water
game fish. This law requiring all anglers, whether residents or non-resi-
dents, to have a license to fish, has brought in considerable revenue.
The Lewistown Hatchery has been enlarged to take care of a million
trout a year. The purchase of Fairlee Mill Pond in Kent County will
make possible the raising of bass, while development of Bear Creek
Station in Garrett County will aid in growing trout to the proper size
before liberating them into fresh water streams of the State. The fish
supply in Deep Creek Lake, Garrett County, has been increased. The
Department has rented the Cushwa Springs in Washington County,
where brook and brown trout are transferred from the Lewistown
Hatchery and are reared to six and seven inches before liberation. "The
Department is also placing in the Conowingo Pool, in co-operation with
the State of Pennsylvania, some fifteen millions of fish each year. This
work is paid for by the Susquehanna Power Company to each State in
lieu of useless fish ways which were not practicable for lifting fish 100
feet from the Susquehanna to the pool. The Department is glad to be
able to state that the commercial fish hatchery work is largely increased
and in 1929 the yellow perch fry was increased from five hundred mil-
lion in 1928 to seven hundred and fifty million yellow perch fry which
were liberated into suitable waters in the state,

The Department has been successful in the raising of shad fry. While
in 1927 there were about five million young shad liberated in the waters
of the bay, in 1928 this amount was increased to fourteen million, eight
hundred and forty thousand. The 1929 showing was a trifle lower than
the 1928, but this was attributed to the run of shad being heavier in
the Potomac River than in the Eastern Shore tributaries. The United
States Bureau of Fisheries has a hatchery located on the upper Potomac
where they were successful in 1928 in taking forty-two million eggs.
While the Bureau has not made its definite report at this time, the De-
partment is informed that it will be equally as good as in 1928.

With the regulation of the net system in Maryland, the Department
feels that the migratory fish will be on the increase.

OYSTERS

Very little oyster legislation was passed at the General Assembly
of 1929. The principal measure was Joint Resolution No. 12, providing
for the Governor to commission the Conservation Commissioner of Mary-
land to meet with the representatives of Virginia for the purpose of
resurveying oyster bars of the Potomac River and recommend to the
Legislature of each State such measures as said representatives may
deem advisable for the restoration of the oyster bars.

GAME

The game of this State consists mostly of wild fowl, birds and fur-
bearing animals. The wide variety of game and fish which is readily