to the rate of fishing. With no fishing, of course, there is 

 no catch, and the potential yield is wasted insofar as man 

 is concerned. On the other hand, it is obvious that at some 

 very high rate of fishing it woxold be impossible for the 

 survivors to produce enough spawn to maintain equally 

 large catches in later years. But judicious thinning can 

 produce a steady yield year after year, somewhat as a row 

 of carrots, or an apple tree, will produce the greatest weight 

 of crop if thinned or pruned carefully. It is the purpose of 

 scientific fishery research to determine the relationship 

 between nxombers of spawners and the size of the commer- 

 cially-valuable crop they will produce, so that the best 

 sustained yield can be known and can be maintained by 

 regulating fishing and other controllable sources of mor- 

 tality, 



Mr, Fredin, of our Seattle Laboratory, in charge of 

 scientific investigations bearing on the abstention case, will 

 report to you first. He will be followed by Mr, Atkinson, 

 Director of our Seattle Laboratory, who will describe 

 studies of high-seas distribution of salmon, and Dr. Royce, 

 Director of the Fisheries Research Institute, who will dis- 

 cuss distribution and movements of salmon as revealed by 

 tagging. 



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