562 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
recognition, which so often is a powerful spur to activity. The bureau’s employ- 
ment offers opportunity for the making of a career. Academic honors and 
scientific recognition are now possible, and adequate compensation and the pos- 
sibility of material advancement make the bureau’s positions most desirable. 
But along with all these opportunities, as I have said, come heavy responsi- 
bilities. We can not deny or ignore the fact that our fisheries are declining. 
A half century of the bureau’s activities have not been sufficient to prevent 
depletion in some, commercial extinction in others. I should not care to say 
that the bureau’s work has amounted to nothing, but we must conclude that our 
efforts have not been sufficient to maintain the fisheries in their former state 
of productiveness. We must, therefore, extend and more wisely direct our 
efforts; we must succeed in coordinating and organizing the efforts of our staff 
and of biologists throughout the country upon the problems of the maintenance 
of the annual yield. 
Our responsibility toward the fisheries is emphasized by the childlike faith 
of the public in the efficacy of science. Science in industry has worked won- 
ders. Science is introduced into business, into government, into every phase of 
daily life; and it is natural and, indeed, proper to expect science to maintain 
the fisheries for all time. This confidence is almost embarrassing, and in view 
of the complexity of the problems of conservation, this faith may well be 
shaken by the unayoiilable slowness with which results are produced. 
But results can be produced, I am very confident, through cooperation and 
organization. The division of inquiry must develop a comprehensive program 
of fishery investigation, in which each of you must take a part as a unit in 
a great machine, 
It is my ambition to see this scientific staff grow in numbers and in effective- 
ness far surpassing previous experience. I want men of ability and vision, 
of industry and diligence, who are prepared to put the whole of their energies 
and interests into the shaping of their scientific careers in the bureau. Half 
interest and half time can never bring the results for which the bureau aims, 
and the dilettante naturalist can expect no Government subsidy through this 
bureau. 
It is through cooperation that the great responsibility of your division can be 
discharged effectually. The principles of fishery investigation must be carried 
into execution, made applicable to the daily problems of fishery administration, 
and, above all, must produce results for the benefit of the fisheries. The indi- 
vidual investigator may be concerned with a theoretical problem, but even in 
the prosecution of highly technical scientific work the ultimate aim of fishery 
conservation must be kept clearly in mind. Some must develop principles, some 
must work upon their application, but the aims and objects of our work must 
be ever before us. We are all giving to the people of this country a service as 
real and as important as that of any agency of production. This service to be 
enduring and far reaching must be carried to the ultimate consumer or it fails 
completely. 
Your immediate problem in this conference is to devise means and develop 
methods of effecting real fishery conservation, and I charge you with the respon- 
sibility of perfecting a program of action that will be more effective than any 
hitherto developed. I have no anxiety concerning your success, and I unhesi- 
tatingly place in your hands the development of the scientific work of this 
bureau, confident that through your whole-hearted endeavors the fishery indus- 
try and the American people will receive benefits that will be a source of pride 
to the bureau and to yourselves. 
Mr. Hicerns. Mr. O’Malley has laid down our work for us very 
pointedly, indeed. We all have our own ideas of how fishery conser- 
vation should be effected. It is now our duty, as he has told us, to 
coordinate these ideas, and therefrom to develop a policy. Before 
attempting to lay down a general policy for the bureau, it is neces- 
sary for us, I believe, to examine, as a background, the field in which 
we must work, and I have asked Mr. Sette, in charge of the division 
of fishery industries, who has at his command all of the available 
statistics, to review for us just what can be found out about the 
actual state of America’s fisheries. 

