PROGRESS IN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, 1938 43 
a closure of the Cape Ommaney area was recommended until the 
population shows definite signs of rehabilitation. The dangerously 
low level to which this population has been reduced was further 
evidenced by the failure of the normal number of spawners to appear 
at the Sitka area, which usually has had a large area heavily spawned. 
The fishery in the Prince William Sound and Kodiak areas con- 
tinues at a high level of abundance, as shown by continuing high 
yield and large catches per unit of gear. These areas are not yet 
as intensively fished as is Southeastern Alaska, but considerable ex- 
pansion is contemplated in each area, and a close watch must be 
maintained to avoid over-exploitation and consequent depletion. 
PACIFIC PILCHARD INVESTIGATIONS 
O. E. Serre, in charge 
After 6 years of rapid and sustained increase in the total yield, 
the Pacific coast pilchard fishery experienced sharp fluctuations 
between 1937 and 1939. The season of 1937-38, for example, ended 
with a catch of 415,583 tons, which was 36 percent less than had 
been taken the previous year. In Washington and Oregon, on the 
other hand, though the summer season of 1938 was shorter than that 
of 1937, the total catch was greater than in any previous year, being 
40,000 tons, or about 18 percent more than in 1937. Likewise, the 
fall season of 1938-39 in California was relatively successful, yield- 
ing by the end of 1938 a catch of 530,452 tons, which was 61 percent 
higher than that of the corresponding period of the previous year. 
Though other fluctuations had occurred during the relatively short 
history of the pilchard fishery, the sharp drop of last year’s catch, 
following as it did an intensification of the fishery, caused concern 
among many as to the state of abundance of the pilchard stock. 
That there are fluctuations in the availability and even abundance of 
the stock, however, is one of the many elements that makes the 
problem of appraising the condition of the pilchard resource so 
elusive and complex. 
This is a problem on which several organizations have been work- 
ing for a number of years, namely, the fish commissions of Cali- 
fornia, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. In October 
1937, the United States Bureau of Fisheries established a laboratory 
at Stanford University to cooperate with these agencies, to assist in 
the coordination of their results, and to investigate those features 
needed to supplement their findings. In May 1938, a conference of 
biologists, representing all the institutions working on pilchard 
research, was held at Stanford University. Past and current in- 
vestigations were discussed and plans laid for future work. | 
Up to the end of 1937, a considerable body of information had 
been collected bearing on the migrations, spawning, age, and growth 
of the pilchard. Tagging experiments have demonstrated extensive 
migrations along the coast for as great a distance as between Cali- 
fornia and British Columbia. The spawning season has been deter- 
mined in California, the principal spawning grounds surveyed, and 
the egg and larval stages described. The phenomenon of fluctuating 
year classes has been well established, individual dominant year 
classes having been recognized and traced through several years. 
