PROGRESS IN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, 1926 599 
there are fluctuations and what these fluctuations are; and so, even 
when deciding which species you are going to study, you must have 
statistics of the yield, and when you get into the study of them you 
must have continuous reference to statistics. ae 
Being more or less responsible for the conduct of the statistical 
department of the bureau, I realize very fully that our statistics 
are woefully inadequate. In the first place, we have statistics only 
once in a while on any particular region—once in. half a dozen years. 
We may hit the peak or trough of any fluctuation of any fishery, so 
that the picture is very rough, indeed, if not entirely valueless, for 
analysis of an investigational nature. If we could have annual sta- 
tistics we would be so much better off, because we know at least where 
our peaks and troughs are, and the biologist investigating the fish- 
eries would learn why those peaks and troughs occur. 
It has been more or less definitely expressed as the policy of the 
Bureau of Fisheries that we should develop the matter of collecting 
statistics by the States. That discussion, I believe, has appeared in 
the last two commissioners’ reports and also in the last two reports 
of the division of fishery industries, and I should like to ask the 
biologists of the Bureau of Fisheries to consider carefully what it 
means to have this policy go through. You will be driven constantly 
to the use of the facts brought out by the statistics, and unless you 
have them you are at a loss. They are just as necessary as to find the 
ages and rates of growth of your fish or the ecological factors. As 
you go to various parts of the country you have opportunity to come 
in contact with men in various industries, with State officials, and 
with various persons interested in fisheries; and I think it would 
help a great deal in advancing this feature if each one of you would 
be more or less of a missionary in educating people to an under- 
standing of this vital necessity in our fisheries. Educate the public 
so that they will appreciate the necessity for statistics and will 
actually have enough interest to support a movement in this direction. 
We, in this division, would always welcome suggestions from the 
biologists as to how we can best present statistical material. I 
don’t know whether you noticed or not, but in the last report of this 
division, instead of showing the statistics of each county in the 
States for which we published statistics, we confined our presenta- 
tion to State figures only. We did this for two reasons—for economy 
in publication and clarity in presentation. We discussed these par- 
ticular changes before they were made. No one could decide whether 
or not it should be done, and we finally decided that the only way 
was to do it and see what objections would be raised. I just wish that 
everybody who has occasion to use any of these statistics would offer 
suggestions for improvement of presentation or improvement of col- 
lection, or for any additional statistics that it may be feasible to 
present in our annual publication. 
