BUREAU OF FISHERIES 323 
which is now utilized principally in the preparation of oils and meals. 
Although large catches have been made in certain areas, several facts 
suggest the need of closer supervision of the fishery. Among these are 
the lack, in the Kodiak area, of any appreciable increments to the 
stock as a result of spawning in recent years, added to increased fish- 
ing intensity and the observed decline in return per unit of gear. 
Large catches have been made also in Prince William Sound, but here 
again the yield is being maintained only by increasing the fishing 
effort. The catch in southeastern Alaska in 1939 was the lowest since 
the inception of the intensive reduction fishery 15 years ago. This 
decline is the result of excessive exploitation combined with the failure 
of several spawning seasons. In an effort to rebuild the stock, fishing 
in the Cape Ommaney area was prohibited during the 1939 season, and 
all fishing for reduction purposes was prohibited in southeastern 
Alaska during 1940. 
Pacific pilchard inwestigations—The object of investigating the 
pilchard fishery of California, Oregon, and Washington is to determine 
how large a catch may be made annually without jeopardizing future 
yields. Recognition of an irreversible decline is made difficult by the 
existence of natural fluctuations in abundance and variations in the 
availability of the fish to the vessels. For these reasons evidence on 
many aspects of the fishery and on the biology of the pilchard popula- 
tions is necessary and is being collected. 
Accurate means of determining the age of pilchards has heretofore 
been lacking, a fact which has hindered the determination of the con- 
tributions made by the various spawning seasons to the commercial 
stock. Intensive experiments conducted by the staff during the past 
two years have now disclosed a method of defining and interpreting 
age marks on the scales of juvenile pilchards through the third year of 
life, and probably of older fish as well, thus providing an indispensable 
tool of pilchard research. 
Surveys to determine what oceanographic conditions control the 
survival of young pilchards and to discover the extent of spawning 
areas and the amount of spawning were carried out with the coopera- 
tion of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography during the 1939 and 
1940 seasons. During the 1940 survey, pilchard eggs were found over 
the entire area of 1,800 square miles covered by the survey—from 
San Diego to about Point Conception—although the maximum spawn- 
ing seemed to have occurred in a zone parallel to the coast and lying 
50 to 100 miles offshore. The location of the spawning area appears 
to correspond to certain hydrographic features. Data collected will 
permit computation of the total number of eggs in the area explored 
and an estimate of the size of the spawning stock. Repeated and exten- 
sive surveys of this sort are necessary to determine whether the spawn- 
