VI EEPORT TO THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE 



PASSAMAQUODDY TOWER TROJECT 



By joint resolution (Pub. Res. No. 83, 71st Cong.) approved 

 June 9, 1930, Congress authorized an appropriation to defray the 

 United States' share of the expenses of an investigation, to be made 

 jointly by the United States and Canada, of the probable effects 

 on the fisheries of the proposed international developments to gener- 

 ate electric power from the movements of the tides in the Passama- 

 quoddy and Cobscook Bays region. The President appointed Henry 

 O'Malley, Commissioner of Fisheries, and O. E. Sette, in charge of 

 North Atlantic fishery investigations of this bureau, as the United 

 States commissioners to conduct the investigations. Wm. A. Found^ 

 Deputy Minister of Fisheries, and Prof. A. G. Huntsman, of the 

 Biological Board of Canada, were appointed to represent Canada. 



The commission met on June 8, 1931, in Montreal to organize and 

 to consider arrangements for initiating the investigation. Mr. 

 Found was chosen chairman and plans were made for the selection 

 of four responsible investigators to conduct investigations on zoo- 

 plankton, phytoplankton, oceanic chemistry, physical oceanography^ 

 and fisheries. The investigations are planned along the following- 

 lines : 



1. Detailed study of the occurrence of the herring in relation to 

 various environmental conditions as an indication of how its avail- 

 ability in the fishery might be affected by the construction of the 

 dams. 



2. A study of the abundance of phytoplankton and zooplankton (as 

 a basis for fish life) in relation to the physical and chemical states 

 of the water in the Bay of Fundy and along the coast of Maine. 



3. Detailed examination of existing hydrographic conditions as 

 indicating the relative importance of the water mixing at the mouth 

 of Passamaquodcly Bay as determining the physical and chemical 

 states of the water in the Bay of Fundy and along the coast of 

 Maine. Tlie commission and investigative staff will be aided by an. 

 advisory committee of four scientists. For Canada these are : Prof. 

 F. R. Hayes, zoological department, Dalhousie University, and Dr. 

 A. W. H. Needier, in charge of oyster investigations; and for the 

 United States, Dr. H. B. Bigelow, director of the Woods Hoi© 

 (Mass.) Oceanographic Institution, and Prof. A. E. Parr, curator^ 

 Bingham oceanographic collection, Yale University, 



NORTH AMERICAN COUNCIL ON FISHERY INVESTIGATIONS 



The council held its seventeenth meeting in Washington, D. C, on 

 November 6 and 7, 1930, with representatives from Canada, France,. 

 Newfoundland, and the United States present. The meeting con- 

 cerned itself with a wide range of subjects dealing with the practical 

 and scientific problems of our North Atlantic fisheries in keeping 

 with its purpose to coordinate the program of research along emi- 

 nently practical lines. Reports on investigations of the cod, haddock, 

 mackerel, herring, and squid fisheries, the Passamaquoddy power 

 project, ocean currents and temperatures, and fishery statistics were 

 received. Dr. Ed. le Danois, director of the marine-fisheries work in 

 France, gave a very interesting account of the movement of North 

 Atlantic waters and their effects on the fisheries, and the Hon. H. B. 



