202 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



A further index to the growing realization on the part of the 

 public of the need for technical advice in the management of fishery 

 resources may be found in the greater tendency shown by State gov- 

 ernments and other organizations to cooperate with the bureau in its 

 investigations. Such cooperation has increased materially both in 

 extent and effectiveness. During 1927 the States of North Carolina, 

 Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, 

 Washington, Oregon, and California offered such cooperation. 



In addition, contact with the fishery departments of foreign gov- 

 ernments has been maintained through the agency of the North 

 American Committee on Fishery Investigations, an international 

 body including representatives of Canada, Newfoundland, France, 

 and the United States. Two regular meetings of the committee were 

 held during the year — the twelfth meeting, held in Washington, 

 D. C, on April 28, and the thirteenth, held in Toronto, Canada, Octo- 

 ber 19, 1927. At each of these meetings representatives of Canada, 

 Newfoundland, and the United States were present, and matters per- 

 taining to the fisheries of the North Atlantic region (especially those 

 for cod, haddock, and mackerel), as well as general investigations of 

 the oceanography of the region, were considered in detail. Late in 

 the year there appeared, as the first publication of the committee, a 

 paper on the " Statistics of the catch of cod off the east coast of North 

 America," by O. E. Sette, which embodies the record of the yield of 

 this fishery in the western North Atlantic from 1880 to 1926. 



Despite the expansion of the activities of the division of inquiry 

 and the increased appropriations that make this greater service pos- 

 sible, there is urgent need for the adoption of a definite and carefully 

 organized plan for the extension of activities that will cover a suffi- 

 cient period of time so that the work may be coordinated in the inter- 

 est of efficiency so as to produce maximum results. It is extremely 

 desirable that congressional sanction be secured for a far-reaching 

 program designed to include, within the next five years, additional 

 projects of research on the major fisheries in virtually all sections of 

 the country. With such assurance of a permanent program of de- 

 velopment, opportunist methods could be abandoned, fortuitous 

 expansion avoided, and future sound development would be assured. 



An essential part of this program of development should include 

 provision for increasing the permanent staff of the division. The 

 acquisition of competent and experienced investigators is of utmost 

 importance in maintaining a high standard of efficiency. Fishery 

 investigations require men of specialized and highly technical train- 

 ing. Unlike other technical branches of the Federal service, in which 

 experts may be secured from among the graduates and faculties of 

 agricultural, engineering, and technical colleges, the Bureau of Fish- 

 eries must depend largely upon investigators who come to the service 

 with little or no practical experience in fishery research. Highly 

 trained biologists, such as professors and graduate students in uni- 

 versities, among whom the bureau's investigators must be sought, are 

 not tempted by offers of temporary employment, regardless of the 

 salar}^ paid. It is imperative, therefore, that a permanent staff of 

 senior investigators be maintained intact in order to carry to success- 

 ful conclusion and practical application the intricate and extended 

 investigations required. 



