DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE BUREAU OF FISHERIES HUGH M. SMITH, Commissioner DANGER TO TAR ERIES FROM OIL AND OF WATERS By J. S. OUTSELL Scientific Assistant, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries Appendix Vll to the Report of the U. S. Commissioner OF Fisheries for 1921 Bureau of Fisheries Document No. 910 PRICE, 5 CENTS Sold only by the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1921 iiiw I ininnn- ' —" — — -a»M| L.IBRAHY OF CONaNESS I SH 6' 3 .G-'^ DANGER TO FISHERIES FROM OIL AND TAR POLLUTION OF WATERS.' J5y J. S. Outsell, Seientijic As.si.^Uivt, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. Recently the casting of oil on already sorely troubled waters has increased at such a rate, has been accused as the source of so many ills of fishermen and shell fishermen and even of ornithologists, and has become such an obvious nuisance, that a considerable realization of the extent of the contamination and a sense of the possible evil effects have been aroused. So great is the discharge of oils of various sorts that in this country it has been proposed to skim oft' the oil from some harbor waters and make it available by proper treatment. In Switzerland a patent has been taken out for the recovery of oils from backwaters. It is very deshable, therefore, to present a brief review of the information available regarding the extent and nature of oil and oil-like pollutions with consideration of the possibilities of danger therefrom. SOURCES OF POLLUTION. Danger of fatal contamination from the poisonous substances seems to lie chiefly in the gas plants and petroleum distilleries, which on one occasion or another, if not regularfy, find it convenient to let certain products drain into the nearest body of water; in tankers and oil- engined craft, which are able to use tar, tar oils, and a great variety of petroleum distillates; in oil-burning steamships; and in the wash- ings of oils and tars from roads. Gas houses and oil refineries are located on all sorts of bodies of water larger than brooks. In smaller streams, and particularly in those inhabited by salmonids, discharges are doubtless frequently fatal to fish life and quite ruinous to the fish value of the water. In larger bodies the actual destruction of fish is apt to be small or incident to exceptional discharges, and the chief harm probably will come from the uninhabitability of the water, especially if this means the rendering unfit of a spawning ground or the forming of a barrier thereto as for salmon or shad. In streams large enough for steamers, and in all larger bodies of water, there are added to the contributions from gas houses and refineries those from tankers and other ships, and the dangers to fishes from poisoning or coating of gills are correspondingly increased. These larger navigable bodies may be spawning grounds and are almost sure to be gateways to what should be spawning grounds. The danger here, therefore, of keeping fish away from the spawning » Appendix VII to the Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries for 1921. B. F. Doc. 910. 3 4 r. S. BUREAU OF FISHKlllF.S. grounds is far id., Vol. LXXXII, Jan. 22, 1921, p. 45. Note by editor to the effect that the Joint <'ommittee of Ministry of Agri- culture and Fisheries and the Ministry of Transport have been unable to find a safe tar; refers to an account by Dr. Smith, U. S. Commis- .siouer Fisheries, of experiments to find a safe tar with out success. Ibid., Vol. LXXXII, Feb. 26, 1921, p. 117. Forbes, S. A. 1894. Kepoi I ou effect of oil-well and gas-house waste on fish and fisheries of the \\'a!ju,.ih Ki\er. In House of Representatives Miscellaneous Document No. 196, 53d Congress, 2d Session, p. 2-5. Also quoted by Richard Rathbun in Report of Commissioner, U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries for 1894 (1896), p. 109-112. Washington. HlLDEBRAND, SaMUEL F. 192 L Top minnows in relation to malaria control, with notes on their habits and distribution. Public Health Bulletin No. 114, U. S. Public Health Service, Treasury Department, p. 17. Washington. Home, David Milne 1883. Salmon and salmon fisheries. International fisheries exhibition. Lon- don, 1883. Conference on July 17, 1883. The Fisheries Exhibition Literature, Vol. VI, Conferences, Part III, 58 p. William Clones and Sons, Limited. Loudon. Lenzing, C. W. 1917. Effect of gas-house waste on the biochemical oxydation of sewage. Uni- versity of Illinois Bulletin, Vol. 15, No. 11, Water Sui'vey Series No. 15, ( hemical and Biological Survey of the A\'aters of Illinois, Report for . . . 1916, p. 168-174. l]rl)ana. McDonald, Makshall 1885. Report on the pollution of the Potomac River l)y the discharge of waste products from gas manufacture. Bulletin, U. S. Fish Commission, Vol. V, 1885, p. 125-126. Washington. Effect of waste products from Page's ammoniacal works upon young shad fry. Ibid., p. 313-314. Marsh, Millaijd Caleb 1907. The effect of some industrial wastes on fishes. {Reprint from The Potomac River Basin, U. S. Geological Survey, Water Supph' and Irrigation Paper No. 192, p. 337-348.)' U. S. Fisheries Doc. No. 619. Washington. Moore, George T., and Karl F. Kellerman 1905. (Copper as an algicide and disinfectant in water supplies. Bulletin 76, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 55 p. Washington. Mosely, Martin E. 1920. Trout fishing and road tarring. Salmon and Trout Magazine, No. 21, March 1920, p. 70-73. London. 10 U. S. BUEEAU or FISHERIES. Richmond, F. G. F' 1914. Some questions of tar. Salmon and Trout Magazine, No. 9, December^ 1914, p. 35-42. London. RUSHTON, W. 1921. Biological notes. Salmon and Trout Magazine, No. 25, .\pril, 1921, p. 114. London. Salmon and Trout Magazine. London. 1916. Road tarring. Salmon and Trout Magazine, No. 14, October, 1916, in Editorial Notes, p. 6-7. 1919. The road-tarring question. Ibid., No. 18, April, 1919, p. 51-57. Road tarring. Ibid., No. 20, November, 1919, in Editorial Notes, p. 7. 1920. Road tarring and fisheries. — Work of the Joint Committee. Ibid., No. 23, September. 1920, in Editorial Notes, p. 9-10. Scientific American. 1921. Wlien oil stops the shifting sands. Scientilic American, Vol. CXXV, No. 5, July 30, 1921, p. 83. Munn & Co., New York. Seydel, E. .. 1914. tjber die Wirkung von Mineralolen auf Fischwasser. Mitteilungen des Fischereivereins, f. d. Provinz Brandenburg, Bd. 5, p. 26-28. Re- viewed in Wasser IT. Abwasser, Bd. 7, p. 49. Shelpord, Victor E. 1917. An experimental study of the effects of gas waste upon fishes, with especial reference to stream pollution. Bulletin, Illinois State Laboratorv of Natural History, Vol. XI, Art. VI, p. 381-412. Urbana. Shipley, A. E. • 1921. Oil from ships. Effects of discharge in the sea. Suffering iisheries. Letter to the editor, London Times, January 21, 1921, p. 6. Thomas, Adrian. . A study of the effects of certain oils, tars, and creosotes upon brook trout (Salvelinih'; fontinalis) . Manuscript. TowNSEND, Charles H. 1908. Pollution of streams — an appeal to anglers. Reprinted from the twelfth annual report of the New York Zoological Society, 1908, 7 p. New York. Ward, Henry B. 1919. 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