PROGRESS IN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, 1932 103 



it is apparent that when depletion once sets in it is Ukely to be dis- 

 astrously rapid, and all possible methods should be used to foresee 

 depletion and prevent its occurrence. In Louisiana, steps toward 

 this end have already been taken. Commissioner of Conservation 

 Robert S. Maestri, at the instigation of M. J. Lindner of the Bureau 

 of Fisheries, and Col. Hu B. Myers and James P. Guillot of the 

 Department of Conservation, inaugurated a system of shrimp-catch 

 records which will eventually yield invaluable information on the 

 abundance of the shrimp. It is required of all dealers and ice-boat 

 captains, or anyone who buys shrimp directly from the fishermen, to 

 fill out a form, in triplicate, giving the name of the dealer, the name 

 of the fisherman, the name of the boat, the type and size of net used, 

 the locality in which the shrimp were caught, the amount of shrimp, 

 and the price paid. These forms are furnished free by the State to 

 all dealers, and the field agents of the Department of Conservation 

 collect the completed tickets twice each month. It is hoped that the 

 other States in which shrimping is an industry will follow the excel- 

 lent example set by Louisiana in securing information on the status 

 of the fishery, for it is only from such records that sufficient informa- 

 tion can be obtained to determine the real abundance of shrimp. 



PACIFIC COAST AND ALASKA FISHERY INVESTIGATIONS 



With the exception of the investigation of the sockeye salmon of 

 Puget Sound the major field projects of the Pacific coast fisheries 

 were continued in Alaska. No new programs of investigations were 

 initiated during 1932, and because of curtailment of funds the work 

 dealing with the steelhead trout of the Rogue River was discontinued. 

 Funds were not available for the employment of an investigator to 

 take charge of the Bristol Bay red-salmon problem. However, scale 

 samples from this region have been secured through the cooperation 

 of the Alaska Division of the Bureau of Fisheries. 



All of the investigators have been stationed at the Fisheries 

 Biological Station in Seattle when not in the field. 



PUGET SOUND SOCKEYE-SALMON INVESTIGATION 



An investigation dealing with the sockeye-salmon fishery of Puget 

 Sound was initiated by J. A. Craig during the preceding year. The 

 program adopted in relation to this particular problem had as its aim 

 the devising of a reliable index of the annual abundance of the sock- 

 eye salmon and solving the ciuestion of whether or not the abundance 

 of the fish varies in a regular and constant manner during each fish- 

 ing season; also, if these regular variations do exist whether or not 

 they are due to individual races of these salmon migrating through 

 the fishery at fairly constant dates from year to year. If the presence 

 of such individual "runs" or "races" can be established, their fluc- 

 tuations in annual abundance can then be studied in detail apart from 

 the total run, since it is possible for certain parts of a red-salmon 

 migration to be more severely depleted than others. 



In order to solve these problems, a statistical study was made of 

 the daily catches of a selected group of traps. Records were procured 

 from the years 1917 to 1930, inclusive. Since the traps selected had 

 not been moved in location or altered in construction during these 

 years, each constituted a constant unit of fishing gear. Records of 



