580 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
Mr. Scorietp. I think that that could well be started by the 
Federal Government or its agents. People in the States don’t know, 
usually, that they need an organization of that sort, and if it is 
suggested directly, it seems to me they can be interested and should 
be able to get those in authority, for instance a fish and game com- 
mission, to act together with the industry and form a department. 
It seems to me it could be developed in the same way in which we 
proceeded in California. 
Mr. Hicerns. You think the Bureau of Fisheries could take a 
leading part in developing adequate administrations in the States? 
Mr. Scorterp. I think so. It would have been a great help to us. 
Mr. Rapctiirrs. Isn’t it virtually necessary that you have some 
clearing house of this kind? Your fish do not recognize boundary 
lines. Therefore, if you are going to have proper statistics, shouldn’t 
there be some way of getting the several States to provide comparable 
ways of collecting statistics, such as a central clearing house? 
Mr. Scorretp. I think that would have to be done to get the 
statistics right. 
Mr. Hicerns. We all appreciate Mr. Scofield’s review of the ex- 
perience of California. California, I think I can say, has led the 
United States in wise fishery administration, and we can look to 
California as a model for all the other States in the matter of 
obtaining exact knowledge of the course of a fishery, through their 
excellent system of taking statistics. 
I have something here that will prove of interest—an article by 
a rather caustic critic of the Ministry of Marine and Fisheries in 
England, whose criticisms are always interesting and sometimes 
very much to the point. He writes under the name of “ Quibbon ” 
in the Fish Trades Gazette in London. 
There has just been issued, as an appendix to the report of the U. S. Com- 
missioner of Fisheries for 1926, a modest pamphlet, of 36 pages, on “ Progress 
in Biological Inquiries, 1925,” by Dr. Willis H. Rich, the assistant in charge 
of scientific inquiry. The price of this paper is 10 cents, or fivepence (from 
the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, 
D. C.), which contracts with the price of similar publications issued by our 
stationery office. A perusal of it shows how enormously the United States 
has advanced in fisheries research in the last few years. Not so very long 
ago there was very little organized research, although many papers were 
published dealing with certain fishes or fisheries. After reading this report, 
it would appear that fishery research in America is now as intense and ex- 
tensive as it is in Europe. Almost every field of inquiry is covered in a 
systematic way, and the methods which have been proved of utility are now 
adopted. The report is an able summary of what is being done. It is said 
that “the policy of stressing the study of the immediate rather than the 
ultimate causes of fluctuations in the abundance of fish of each species was 
continued”; and that “emphasis has been placed on the investigations giving 
the greatest promises of results of practical importance in the conservation 
and development of the fishery resources.” This is as it should be. It is the 
duty of fishery departments everywhere to follow the same policy, leaving it 
to the universities, or other institutions (as the Marine Biological Association 
in this_country), with more or less financial assistance from the State, to 
undertake the more theoretical researches—which, however, it must be said, 
may be ultimately of no less practical importance. It is pointed out that 
true conservation of the fisheries means not only guarding them against de- 
pietion, but making use of them to the greatest possible extent compatible 
with their perpetuation. The difficulty is to determine from year to year 
what the excess production is, and how much of the stock may be taken by 
man without endangering the future supply. We must know the causes of the 
fluctuations in the yield from year to year, and how these fluctuations may 
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