334 U.S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



IMPROVEMENT OF INVESTIGATIONAL SERVICE 



This report would not be complete without mention of the things 

 most urgently required to facilitate the acquisition of biological 

 facts necessary for the conservation of the fishery resources of this 

 region. 



The principal impediment to progress at present is the lack of 

 assistants to analyze the statistics of the fishery and the biological 

 records necessary for their interpretation. Practically every deter- 

 mination of changes in abundance, average differences in growth 

 rate, and the like involve the handling of mass data, such as the daily 

 catch of a large number of boats over an extensive area throughout 

 a considerable period of time or the summation of large numbers of 

 measurements of fish or of fish scales. The purely clerical work in- 

 volved in the reduction of such mass data to comprehensible terms 

 attains a magnitude not usually appreciated. Furthermore, more 

 frequently than not, during the course of study the need for addi- 

 tional data from the fishery becomes necessary and progress is halted 

 until the investigator himself can spend the weeks or months neces- 

 sary to collect them. Here again the provision of assistance would 

 facilitate the work greatly. Due to lack of assisting personnel, both 

 in the laboratory and in the field, the results reported above are 

 fewer in number and much less definite in purport than would have 

 been the case if adequate assistance were available. Under the cir- 

 cumstances it is readily apparent that a very small increase in the 

 salary roll necessary to provide the appropriate assistance would 

 double the value of results by increasing their number and their 

 significance. 



Secondly, the lack of a suitably equipped research vessel capable 

 of offshore work has been a very serious handicap. While data 

 collected ashore on the fish brought in by fishing vessels and at sea 

 on commercial fishing craft must always provide the basic material 

 for determining the condition of the resource, the interpretation of 

 these facts requires also the kind of data that can only be secured 

 at sea by a vessel equipped to handle hydrographic instruments, spe- 

 cial nets and trawls, and free to survey the particular grounds that 

 must be examined to elucidate the phenomena occurring in the 

 fishermen's catches. 



Thirdly, the restoration of activities at the United States Fish- 

 eries Biological Station at Woods Hole is needed to complement the 

 regular investigative program. Just as data at sea are necessary to 

 elucidate the peculiarities of yield exhibited by fishermen's catches, 

 laboratory experiments are often required to discover certain basic 

 features of the life processes of fishes and their responses to certain 

 environmental conditions. At the Woods Hole station many of these 

 studies could be pursued by volunteer investigators from universi- 

 ties at no expense to the Government beyond those incidental to care 

 and maintenance of the equipment of the establishment. 



