EV REPORT TO THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE 
to get an idea of the exceeding complexity of the problem and the 
need for painstaking research to establish the facts. 
The scientific staff has collected a fund of information along bio- 
logical lines, which later will be found to be of great use when there 
has been opportunity to work over it thoroughly. This includes 
racial measurements, rates of growth, study of the eggs and larve of 
the halibut and their drift with the currents, and effectiveness of large 
and small gear and their effect on the fishery. The biological results 
fully corroborate the results obtained from tagging, as far as migra- 
tion is concerned, but, of course, present many other facts. Intensive 
laboratory work must follow to bring out these facts. 
On February 23, 1927, the fishing schooner Scandia, under charter 
by the commission, was hurled onto a reef half a mile off Kodiak 
Island, in the midst of a high sea and a blinding snowstorm, and 
wrecked. Through the prompt and courageous action of the cap- 
tain and crew of the seine boat Duncan J, the scientific staff and 
crew of 15 men were saved, but the equipment and gear were lost. 
The loss of the Scandia was the climax of an exceedingly hard 
winter, during which the halibut investigations had been conducted 
with great difficulty, much of the work having been done virtually 
in intervals between storms. The catch of Pacific halibut (United 
States and Canada) in 1926 was 53,780,389 pounds, as compared 
with 49,843,967 pounds in 1925, an increase due to more intensive 
fishing. 
FISHERIES CONVENTION WITH MEXICO 
The convention between the United States and Mexico to prevent 
smuggling, and for certain other objects, which was ratified ou 
March 18, 1926, contained a section devoted to the fisheries, quoted 
in full in the last annual report. Upon the initiative of the United 
States Government, the convention was terminated on March 28, 
1927, or at the end of a year after it came into effect. During the 
life of the International Fisheries Commission, provided for under 
the terms of the treaty, a program of scientific investigations was 
drafted and preliminary investigations were begun. 
A study of the record of the California Fish and Game Commission 
with respect to the receipts of fish from waters off the coast of 
Mexico, 1920-1925, inclusive, disclosed that of the total landings 
of the catch from the waters off both coasts at California ports the 
following percentages came from waters off the coast of Mexico: 
Yellowfin tuna, 79; spiny lobster, 70; black sea bass, 48; barracuda, 
33; skipjack, 33; white sea bass, 26; bonito, 25; and yellowtail, 21. 
The investigative program, therefore, was to concern mainly these 
species. 
P Statistics of the fish, mollusks, and crustaceans landed in Cali- 
fornia during the calendar year 1926, as reported by the California 
Fish and Game Commission, show 371,648,275 pounds, of which 
23,058,741 pounds were taken in Mexican waters. During the year 
about 750 American fishing boats operated off the coast of Lower 
California, Mexico, with 11 vessels, of 75 to 100 tons each, acting as 
tenders, and 4 or 5 barges. The investment of American capital 
in boats, fishing gear, and cannery capacity dependent upon the 
Mexican supply of fish is estimated at $10,000,000, exclusive of the 
investment in fresh-fish markets. 
