G- Mattson 



Resource monitoring anchovy eggs from the CalCOFl 

 surveys off California. 



price competition from the booming fishery for the 

 Peruvian anchovy (E)igraulis ringens): the disagreement 

 between commercial and sports fishing interests as to 

 how such a fishery might effect the harvested stocks; 

 and the depressed economic state of the fishing fleet con- 

 sequent upon the sardine decline and the collapse of the 

 industrial fishery. 



In response to these findings, the CalCOFI investi- 

 gations gradually changed their direction, towards seek- 

 ing an understanding of the complex and dynamic equi- 

 librium among the many pelagic species (both of fish 

 and invertebrates) in the California Current, in an 

 attempt to understand their reaction to a changing and 

 unstable environment and to changing fishing pressures 

 on some of them. 



The almost unmatched accumulation of data, span- 



ning 20 years which are now available, combined with 

 computer methods of handling such voluminous data, 

 give great promise that these continuing investigations 

 will bring a real understanding of an unusually complex 

 fishery situation. Only from such an understanding can 

 a rational management program be developed. The 

 Fishery-Oceanography Center and State fisheries agencies 

 both remain active in this endeavor. 



The work demands activity in many fields of re- 

 search: physiology and biochemistry to determine the 

 energy requirements of the components of the biological 

 population, including the commercial fish; population 

 dynamics of the harvested populations of pelagic species, 

 competing and interacting with each other and with the 

 fishery; physical and biological oceanography to under- 

 stand, to monitor, and to predict the environment; gear 

 and operations research to give assistance to an econom- 

 ically depressed and out-of-date fishing fleet. 



The fishery for fresh fish for the tables of Califor- 

 nians is in a less depressed state than the industrial fish- 

 ery; the landings remained at about the same level in 

 1966 as in 1939, thougli their value was higher. 



Research on the fresh tlsh fishery is handled by 

 State agencies, and has much overlap with research on 

 sports fisheries since in several instances the same species 

 are involved in both fisheries. The Fishery-Oceanography 

 Center is involved in this work in only minor ways. 



The California fishery for invertebrates has re- 

 mained of minor importance in the overall fishery econ- 

 omy of the State, despite a more than doubling of the 

 landings, mainly due to increased exploitation of squid 

 and market crab. State laboratories are active in research 

 on these resources, and again the Fishery-Oceanography 

 Center is involved in only minor ways. 



FACILITIES FOR RESEARCH 



The Fishery-Oceanography Center, 4 years after its 

 establishment, is now a fully operational fishery labora- 

 tory with many unique features. About a quarter of 

 the laboratory space is allotted to other research agen- 

 cies; lATTC is the largest tenant agency, followed by 

 STOR, the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, 

 the California Department of Fish and Game, and the 

 U.S. Geological Survey. The remainder of the space is 

 fully occupied by the scientists and supporting staff of 

 the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and comprises scien- 

 tist's olTices, laboratories, an experimental aquarium, a 

 library, mechanical and electronic workshops, computing 

 and data-communications facilities, administrative of- 

 fices, and storage rooms for scientific collections. 



The design of the building has proved to be excel- 

 lent as an environment for research. Among the out- 

 standing facilities is the experimental aquarium (occupy- 

 ing the whole of the basement of two of the four adjoin- 



ing buildings) which has been heavily used and is proba- 

 bly superior to that in any other fishery laboratory. The 

 delivery, from overhead facilities, of 750 liters per minute 

 of filtered and ultraviolet-treated fresh sea water, op- 

 tionally at 10° or 20°C., has permitted wide use of in- 

 expensive, temporary tanks designed especially for each 

 experimental use. We have been able to maintain adult 

 pelagic fish, such as anchovy or jack mackerel (Trachurus 

 symmetricus), indefinitely in a healthy condition and to 

 rear eggs of many species througli the subadult stage and 

 beyond. The isolated environment rooms have proved 

 invaluable in studies of schooling behavior where insula- 

 tion from vibration and other influences was essential. 



Although not specifically planned in the design of 

 the building, a data-communications facility has been 

 developed by means of which the Fishery-Oceanography 

 Center is linked to the U.S. Navy Fleet Numerical 

 Weather Central at Monterey, and to data circuits main- 



