214 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
RESEARCH ASSOCIATES AND STUDENT ASSISTANTS 
Because of the relatively small size of the Bureau’s technological 
staff, and the rather broad field of research it must cover, it is only 
possible to undertake those problems which are of a fundamental 
nature and which promise to be of the greatest value to the largest 
number of persons, whose livelihood depends in whole or in part on the 
fisheries, and which are possible with the funds and personnel available. 
For this reason the Division cannot, with present facilities, attack 
problems of special or restricted interest affecting certain products, 
processes, methods, or industries. However, the Bureau has availa- 
ble, by congressional authorization and under an arrangement similar 
to that of other scientific Government bureaus, facilities for research 
associates and student assistants in its laboratories. The salaries 
and expenses of these employees are paid by the firms or groups who 
are interested in the problems on which they are working and the in- 
vestigations are carried out under the supervision of the Bureau’s 
technologists in its laboratories and under its control. Thus the 
Bureau provides these industries and groups with laboratory, consult- 
ing, and library facilities which, in most instances, cannot be obtained 
elsewhere. 
Within the limits of its facilities, the Bureau also has opened its 
technological laboratories to research students who are pursuing 
courses in universities and who are selecting investigational problems 
in the fisheries as their major study. This may prove of special bene- 
fit to the industry as it brings its problems to the attention of a large 
eroup of research workers who in turn may spread interest to applied 
fishery research. 
In the preceding sections of this report we have given the names of 
organizations which are conducting cooperative projects under the 
supervision of our technological staff and which have employed re- 
search associates for this purpose. In the preceding section on labora- 
tories, we have given the individual names of these research associates 
and student assistants. The plan of utilizing graduate student assist- 
ants for working part-time on research projects has been so successful 
that the University of Maryland employed from its own funds addi- 
tional graduate students, by establishing two research fellowships for 
work on fishery technological research. Some of these new research 
problems assigned to these research fellows at the beginning of the 
school year in October 1938, are: (1) Studies on the enzymes in fresh 
and frozen fish; (2) chemical and pharmacological studies on the 
oxidized oils in fish meals; (8) chemical and pharmacological studies 
on the decomposition of protein in fish meals; and (4) studies of certain 
bacterial enzymes responsible for certain types of fish spoilage. These 
projects are selected by the student in accordance with his qualifica- 
tions, approved by both the Bureau and the University, and the re- 
sults are prepared in a thesis submitted for a master’s or a doctor’s 
degree at the end of 3 years of part-time work. These students usually 
do excellent work, the results of such studies are usually of value to the 
industry, and this plan serves to educate and train scientific fishery 
investigators. 
