Period of reduced budgets , 1933-U7 o— The depression of 1933 

 and folj-owing years brought drastic curtailment of governmental 

 research activities and pressure for reduction of personnelo 

 Field work on all major projects ended in order to retain as many 

 as possible of the staff in anticipation of better times. Through 

 reorganization and adjustment elsewhere Ralph Hile, still a member 

 of the staff, was transferred to Great Lakes Fishery Investigations 

 from his work on northern Wisconsin lakes for the purpose of develop- 

 ing procedures for the analysis of the statistics of the commercial 

 fisheries of the Great Lakes o Hile's biological studies, however, 

 continued for nearly 10 years to be based principally on materials 

 and data from the interior lakes of Wisconsin, waters peculiarly 

 well suited to research on certain types of ecological problems, 

 the results of which could be useful in the conduct of studies on 

 the Great LakeSo This Wisconsin work was accordingly considered 

 an integral part of Great Lakes Fishery Investigations. 



The period of scanty budgets that started in 1933 continued 

 through fiscal year 19hl» The figures of $7,010 for fiscal year 

 19lil and $5,310 for fiscal year 19i42 recorded in table 1 do not 

 represent relief to the poverty of Great Lakes Fishery Investiga- 

 tions since as is explained in the footnote to the table the 

 greater part of the funds was required to cover the costs of the 

 activities of the United States members of the International Board 

 of Inquiry for the Great Lakes Fisheries „ Thus Great Lakes Fishery 

 Investigations passed through a l5-year period during which the 

 amount available annually to meet all operating expenses--travel, 

 subsistence, communications, supplies, equipment, wages of temporary 

 smplQyees,* oo—consistently was less than $3,000 and in 2 years 

 dropped below $1,000. Field operations of any consequence were 

 out of the question. The only projects worth listing were the 

 1537-38 sur^rey of the fisheries of Potagannissing Bay, Lake Huron, 

 supported by the Michigan Department of Conservation, and the 1938 

 survey of the fisheries of the Red Lakes, Minnesota, carried out in 

 cooperation with the Office of Indian Affairs., Otherwise, field 

 work was l:imited to ''spot-checks" of problem situations or short-term 

 excursions to obtain materials needed to fill gaps in studies based 

 on collections of the 1927-32 period., 



This 1933-^7 period was nevertheless one in which numerous 

 significant publications were issued--and that despite the loss of 

 Deason through transfer in 19liO and the nearly full-time occupation 

 of the entire staff with the activities of the war-time agency. 

 Office of the Coordinator of Fisheries, during 19ii2-h5^o Prevented 

 by lack of ftinds from the continuation of past projects or the 

 initiation of any new research, staff members devoted their time 

 to the completion of reports based principally on the collections 

 of the earlier years when greater allotments and especially the 

 liberal support of outside agencies made field operations possible. 

 Exceptional as the number of publications may have been in relation 



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