PROGRESS IN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, 19 3 2 81 



features of the life history of the shrimp have been sketched as a basis 

 for wise conservation measures when they are needed. 



The oyster investigations of the Bureau have been so designed as 

 to give direct and practical aid to the industry. Experimental and 

 demonstration farms have been established in a number of localities 

 throughout the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast States. More eco- 

 nomical and practical methods of opening oysters, which also improve 

 their quality, have been devised, and the Atlantic coast growers have 

 been warned of the dangers to the native stock of the importation of 

 Japanese oysters. These warnings have been heeded, and in some 

 States legislation has been passed prohibiting the planting of the Jap- 

 anese variety in waters along the Atlantic coast. On the Pacific 

 coast aid has been given to the growers cultivating native Olympia 

 oysters. 



During the past few years the Bureau's investigations in aquicul- 

 ture have been successful in improving hatchery technique, combating 

 disease which annually has taken heavy toll of trout and other game 

 fishes crowded under unnatural conditions in hatchery troughs, and 

 in improving strains of brood fish that are more productive and more 

 disease resistant than wild stock. Continued improvements have 

 been made during the past year in developing diets that will produce 

 growth, vigor, and color in hatchery-reared fish equal or superior to 

 those found in nature. At the same time material economies in oper- 

 ation have been effected by the use of cheaper food materials. 



Additional improvements in the restocking of inland waters are 

 resulting from the Bureau's program of stream survey. The exten- 

 sion of highway travel and the rapid increase in the number of an- 

 glers have necessitated radical changes in the methods of planting 

 and have demonstrated the necessity for systematic stocking based 

 upon accurate knowledge of conditions of fish life existing in the 

 more accessible lakes and streams. Since the Bureau's responsibility 

 for maintaining and improving angling is definitely indicated in the 

 waters of the public domain, limnological investigations have been 

 concentrated in the national parks and forests in the intermountain 

 region and will be extended to other areas as funds and personnel 

 permit. Studies already made under this program are yielding re- 

 sults in systematic stocking of public waters that will be increasingly 

 apparent to the angler from year to year. 



Although funds authorized to be appropriated by the act of May 21, 

 1930, known as the "Five-Year Construction and Maintenance Pro- 

 gram of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries", have not been provided, the 

 major projects of investigations under way during 1931 were contin- 

 ued. The reduction of appropriations for scientific work which be- 

 came available July 1, 1932, amounting to more than one-third of the 

 total appropriation, necessitated considerable curtailment of activi- 

 ties in each of the major programs of investigation, and the entire 

 abandonment of several minor undertakings. The steady increase 

 of funds for fishery investigations during the past several years has 

 permitted the gradual expansion of activities and increase in techni- 

 cal personnel. Because of the difficulties in securing well-trained 

 fishery biologists, however, appointments to the permanent staff 

 lagged behind authorized pay rolls and resulted in the employment 

 of a larger number of temporary and part-time assistants than nor- 

 mally would be the case. Hence, the curtailment of funds has resulted 

 first in the discontinuance of virtually all temporary appointments 



