4 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
fisheries of Long Island, N. Y., the major portion of which program 
was financed by the State Conservation Department and carried out 
largely by State personnel. Several of the New England States are 
making active plans to assist in the collection of vitally necessary 
fishery statistics applicable to the biological problems of mainte- 
nance of supply. Specific acknowledgement of cooperation and 
assistance of many other States and organizations is made in 
connection with the individual reports of projects. 
NORTH AMERICAN COUNCIL ON FISHERY INVESTIGATIONS 
Since 1921 the United States has participated, through member- 
ship in the North American Council on Fishery Investigations, with 
Canada, Newfoundland, and France in planning and coordinating 
studies of the fisheries of the North Atlantic area in which all four 
nations have a material interest. The twenty-fifth meeting of the 
Council was held in Boston, Mass., on Oct. 4-7, 1938, at the same 
time and place that the commercial fishery industries were holding 
their fishery exposition and convention. The Council invited the 
members of the Fishery Advisory Committee of the Department of 
Commerce, and other leaders of the industry, to attend a general 
session on Oct. 5 at which time fishery problems in the North Atlantic 
area were discussed and the program of fishery investigations carried 
on by Newfoundland, Canada, and the United States was presented. 
The meetings of the Council are particularly useful in that they 
afford an opportunity for the investigators of the several fishery 
departments to discuss their technical problems and to exchange 
experiences and opinions regarding methods, objectives, and results. 
Nearly a score of fishery investigators in the various services were 
present and participated in sectional committee meetings dealing 
with groundfish investigations, shorefish studies, hydrographic 
research, and fishery statistics, affording the members of the Council 
a summary review of progress during the year in these fields and 
permitting them to modify their official programs accordingly. 
COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS 
During the year important progress has been made toward the 
solution of vital problems of fish protection on the Great Lakes, 
where, under the present system of divided control, it is impossible 
to halt the depletion of the fisheries; and on the Atlantic seaboard, 
where the migratory nature of many of the important commercial 
species introduces difficult problems in fishery management and 
administration. This progress has resulted from the efforts of the 
Council of State Governments in cooperation with the Bureau of 
Fisheries and with fishery administrators of the various States 
concerned. 
Two conferences on the problems of the Great Lakes fisheries were 
held during the year. The first of these, which met in Detroit on 
Feb. 25-26, was called by the Council of State Governments at the 
request of the Michigan Cooperation Commission. Action was taken 
by the Detroit conference as follows: (1) The Federal Government 
