226 The Life Story of the Fish 



tunately kept for years. It solved the "maximum sustained 

 yield" problem to an extent at least sufficient for practical 

 purposes. The next step was to formulate regulations in keep- 

 ing with the findings. And the third step was to enforce them 

 — particularly difficult in this case because the fishery was 

 carried on by citizens of both the United States and Canada 

 and in waters belonging to both countries. However, a com- 

 mission was set up, regulations were promulgated, the fisher- 

 men had the good sense to give them a fair trial, and the 

 result is that more halibut are landed now with less fishing 

 effort and therefore with more profit than ever before. 



One small detail in the story of the halibut deserves high- 

 lighting: it was only when conditions became desperate that 

 the fishermen were willing to accept the results of biological 

 investigation. This is often the case. Fishermen are human. 

 As long as they make money, they react with a violent nega- 

 tive to any suggestion of regulation. When they cease to 

 make money, they want help. 



The Pacific sardine industry has now reached this stage, 

 after a history that can be called truly spectacular. Practically 

 unknown in 1900, the Pacific sardine came to the fore during 

 the food shortages of the First World War. By 1920 pro- 

 duction had reached one hundred thousand tons (two hun- 

 dred million pounds), and the canneries could not come near 

 to using all the fish which the fishermen could bring in. 

 Transformation of the excess into sardine meal solved that 

 problem, and the catch continued to increase until by 1937 

 it had reached eight hundred thousand tons — the biggest in 

 the whole of the western hemisphere. 



All this time the fishery biologists — without the blessing of 

 the industry — were working on the case. They studied scales 

 and found that the sardine had a maximum life span of at 

 least fifteen years (surprisingly long for so small and abun- 

 dant a creature) j that it began to spawn at three years; and 



