338 U. S. BUKEAU OF FISHEEIES 



duced at a cost that can meet price competition with meats. This 

 was not demonstrated by depletion of fish to the point of raising 

 costs of production but by the lowering of meat prices to such a point 

 that fish could not compete successfully at the ordinary level of 

 abundance and ordinary cost of production. 



It is imperative, therefore, that there be developed means of ob- 

 serving the changing levels of abundance and bringing forces to bear 

 to counteract trends in the dangerous direction. This is being done 

 in the case of several of the most important species of this region, 

 including haddock, mackerel, squeteague, and scup, as will appear in 

 the following pages. But the staff and its facilities have been in- 

 adequate to cover other almost equally important species, among 

 them the lobster, shad, flounders, sea bass, bluefish, and cod, not to 

 mention some twenty-odd other species of lesser importance but 

 constituting in the aggregate an important segment of the coastal 

 and offshore marine fisheries. 



Even the species receiving consideration cannot be accorded the 

 amount of study that the problems connected therewith require for 

 solution. The most serious handicap under which the staff is oper- 

 ating is the lack of a sea-going research ship equipped for trawling. 

 It is badly needed to survey the stocks of young haddock, upon 

 which the future of the trawling fleet depends; to operate experi- 

 mental gear so as to develop means of saving young fish from need- 

 less destruction now attending certain methods of fishing; to catch 

 live fish for tagging in order that their migrations may be followed ; 

 and to take observations on conditions of the sea water of our fishing 

 grounds that determine the success or failure of future broods. 

 Additional personnel is needed to perform field work and to assist 

 in the analysis of the field data. The fisheries of the region provide 

 products valued at $25,000,000 annually as landed at the dock. The 

 annual expenditure for the research on marine fishery problems of 

 the region is only one one-hundredth of 1 percent of the value. This 

 rate is too low to provide adequate insurance against unwitting over- 

 exploitation on the one hand or unsound restrictions on the other 

 hand. 



As in former years, the staff, under the direction of O. E. Sette, 

 has been provided with laboratory and library facilities by the 

 Harvard Biological Laboratories and the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., where its mem- 

 bers have also benefited from consultation with members of the uni- 

 versity, especially Henry B. Bigelow, professor of oceanography and 

 director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, whose wealth 

 of knowledge and experience relating to marine fisheries research has 

 been ever at the disposal of the Bureau employees. It is a pleasure 

 also to acknowledge the continued cooperation of fishermen and fish- 

 ing companies in providing data essential to the progress of the 

 work. 



HADDOCK 



In 1934 the fishing activities of the New England haddock fleet 

 were extended over a much wider area than in previous years, yet 

 the total haddock catch was little greater than in 1933. The land- 

 ings at the principal ports (these include all landings except a rela- 



