PROGRESS IN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, 1938 5 
was urged to discuss with Canadian authorities the establishment 
of an International Board of Inquiry to consider and recommend 
measures for the conservation of the Great Lakes fisheries. (2) A 
special Interstate Committee on Great Lakes Fisheries, consisting of 
representatives of the Lake States, with advisory members from the 
Bureau of Fisheries, the State Department, the Province of Ontario 
and the Dominion of Canada, was appointed with instructions to offer 
its services to the State Department as an advisory body and to 
assist the States in their individual and cooperative efforts to conserve 
the fisheries. (3) A resolution was adopted urging the legislatures 
of the various States bordering on the Great Lakes to give their 
conservation departments discretionary power to promulgate rules 
and regulations regarding the taking of food fishes. 
_ The Interstate Committee created at the Detroit conference met 
in Chicago on Dec. 5. This committee reaffirmed its endorsement of 
an international treaty, and also declared itself in favor of an inter- 
state compact for the control of United States fisheries in the Great 
Lakes, pending the adoption of an international agreement. The 
committee again urged the granting of discretionary power to State 
fish and game commissioners as an aid to securing uniform regula- 
tions. Commissioners of Wisconsin, Indiana, and Minnesota now 
have such powers. It is expected that the legislatures of Illinois 
and Michigan may pass similar legislation in the near future. 
Legislation authorizing the formation of an interstate compact 
among the Great Lakes States for the preservation of their fisheries 
has now been passed by the Congress of the United States. 
Plans for the conservation of migratory fishes of the Atlantic 
coast received marked impetus from action taken by the majority 
of the States from Maine to Florida at the Eastern States Conserva- 
tion Conference held in New York on Noy. 19. A resolution was 
unanimously adopted petitioning the Congress of the United States 
to grant permission to the States to enter into a compact for the 
protection of migratory fishes in territorial waters. A committee 
was appointed to prepare a draft for submission to the States. This 
conference was called by the New York Joint Legislative Committee 
on Interstate Cooperation and all of the Atlantic Coast States, with 
the exception of New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, 
and Florida, sent one or more delegates. Another conference will be 
called at some future time to consider a specific draft of the inter- 
state compact before efforts are made to secure its adoption and 
ratification. 
PUBLICATIONS 
As was intimated above, a number of important investigations, some 
of which have been under way for a period of 10 years, have come 
to completion during the year and reports are now ready for publi- 
cation. There is considerable doubt, however, at the present time, 
regarding their probable date of release to the public, for funds 
available for printing have suffered a progressive decline since 1930. 
This shortage of funds applies to the publication of the results of 
investigations by the Bureau as a whole and necessarily restricts and 
limits the usefulness of the data acquired through many years of 
162186—39——2 
