A shrimp trawler used by fishermen to exploit stocks of white, 

 brown, and pink shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico. This vessel was 

 chartered to assist biologists in their research on shrimp. 



SOMETHING ABOUT BCF 



The Bureau was first known as the United States 

 Fish Commission and functioned as an independent 

 agency from 1871 to 1903. In 1903, it was placed in 

 the newly established Department of Commerce and 

 Labor and was renamed the Bureau of Fisheries. In 

 1913, the Department of Labor was separated from 

 Commerce, and the Bureau of Fisheries remained in 

 the Department of Commerce until 1939. At that time 

 the Bureau of Fisheries and the Department of Agricul- 

 ture's Bureau of Biological Survey were transferred to 

 the Department of the Interior. A year later, on June 

 30, 1940, the two Bureaus were merged to form the 

 Fish and Wildlife Service. The Fish and Wildlife Act 

 of 1956 created the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 

 and the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. BCF 

 has six regional offices and one area office; the head- 

 quarters office is in Washington, D.C. 



Ponds in which biologists at the BCF Biological Laboratoiy, 

 Galveston, are experimenting to determine the feasibility of 

 farming .shrimp. 



