588 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
wrote them down, but you will recognize, no doubt, a familiarity in 
what I have to say. I invite criticism; I invite discussion; and 
being a target, your sharpest shafts will be welcome. 
THE POLICY OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES WITH REGARD TO 
BIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS : 
By ELMER HiIccIns 
Assistant in charge, Division of Scientific Inquiry 
The first step toward the conservation of our aquatic resources, taken because 
of the well-defined conviction as to their imminent destruction, was made by 
Congress in 1871, when the United States Fish Commission was established. 
Spencer F. Baird, the first commissioner, outlined the duties imposed by 
Congress, as follows:* That it should be the duty of the commissioner “to 
prosecute ” the necessary inquiries, “ with the view of ascertaining whether any 
and what diminution in the number of food fishes cf the coast and lakes of the 
United States has taken place; and, if so, to what causes the same is due; 
and also whether any and what protection, prohibitory or precautionary 
measures should be adopted * * *.” Thereupon, numerous activities, which 
had been conducted by scattered agencies such as the United States National 
Museum, the State fish commissions, and private agencies, were stimulated and 
centralized by the amazing energy of Commissioner Baird and his associates. 
The United States Fish Commission (later the United States Bureau of Fish- 
eries) has been, therefore, since its inception, essentially an investigative 
advisory organization, whose duty it is to discover the need for and devise 
the means of practical conservation work. The principal direction in which 
the expansion of original plans has occurred is in the development of fish- 
cultural operations, intended to prevent depletion or build up the fisheries that 
have been depleted, and in the administration of the fisheries of Alaska, 
including the fur-seal industry. 
Due to the rosy promises of the newly discovered art of fish culture, Congress 
was induced to add to the duties of the fish commissioner, at the end of the 
first year of his service, the artificial propagation of fishes. Under the influ- 
ence of Professor Baird, an admirable program was initiated and carried out 
vigorously for many years. Investigations in marine biology were fostered 
and encouraged. <A great marine biological station was established on the 
Atlantic coast. Vessels and equipment for deep-sea explorations were procured 
and many extensive expeditions to distant seas undertaken. Physical and 
economic inventories of the fisheries were made, and technological investiga- 
tions looking to the more adequate utilization of fishery products and the 
developing of new fishing areas were begun. It was in the field of fish culture, 
however, that the most evident progress was made. The principal activity 
of this most versatile first commissioner was directed toward: the wholesale 
replenishment of supposedly depleted waters. So successful was fish culture in 
the United States that in 1880 the grand prize of the International Fisheries 
Exposition at Berlin was awarded to Professor Baird ‘as the first fish-culturist 
in the world.” i 
The early attitude of the commission toward scientific work, which included 
the ‘systematic investigation of the waters of the United States and the 
biological and physical problems which they present,” was admirably expressed 
by G. Brown Goode® in 1884 as follows: 
_ ‘Phe scientific studies of the commission are based upon a liberal and philosophical 
interpretation of the law. In making his original plans, the commissioner insisted that 
to study only the food fishes would be of little importance, and that useful conclusions 
must needs rest upon a broad foundation of investigations purely scientific in character. 
The life history of species of economic value should be understood from beginning to end, 
but no less requisite is it to know the histories of the animals and plants upon which they 
feed or upon which their food is nourished ; the histories of their enemies and friends and 
the friends and foes of their enemies and friends, as well as the currents, temperatures, 
and other physical phenomena of the waters in relation to migration, reproduction, and 
growth. <A necessary accompaniment to this division is the amassing of material for 
research to be stored in the National and other museums for future use. 


8’ The status of the U. S. Fish Commission in 1884. By G. Brown Goode. Appendix HE, 
Report, United States Fish Commissioner for 1884 (1996), p. 1141. 
° Idem, p. 1141. 
