REPORT 



COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



Departmext of Commerce, 



Bt'EEAU OF Fisheries, 

 Washington, October 10, 1919. 



Sm: In presenting this report in which is given a resume of the 

 varied activities of the Bureau of Fisheries for the fiscal year ending 

 June 30, 1919, I take the liberty to express appreciation of your sus- 

 tained interest in and ever-ready, helpful criticism of the Bureau's 

 work and to acknowledf2;e your potent assistance which has made it 

 possible for the Bureau to assume larger functions of public usefulness 

 than it ever had before and has prepared the way for still greater 

 service and achievement. To state tnat you have made permanent 

 impress on this Bureau's career is but to repeat what is generally held 

 by the responsible employees in office and field. 



This occasion is taken to reaffirm the critical condition that has 

 been created bv the long continuance of inadequate compensation in 

 all grades of the service. The prospective recommendations of the 

 Joint Congressional Commission on the Reclassification of Salaries are 

 confidently expected to meet and counteract the disorganizing situa- 

 tion now confronting the office force in Washington; but the labors of 

 the commission will be futile, so far as this Bureau is concerned, if 

 provision is not speedily made by Congress for the rectification of 

 salaries in the field. 



RELATIONS WITH THE FISHERY INDUSTRIES. 



SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES. 



Inasmuch as outside of Alaska the Bureau exercises no jurisdiction 

 over the fisheries, its relations therewith are necessarily confined to 

 advisory, investigational, educational, and informative work to meet 

 the special requirements of the countiy at large, the individual States, 

 and various branches of the fishery industries. 



The need for food production and food conservation during the war 

 and post-war periotls has afforded unprecedented opportimities for 

 increasing the consumption of fish and incidentally lor developing 

 uses for ny-products of the fisheries. Appreciative of these oppor- 

 tunities, and being desirous of contributing its full share of efforl. dur- 

 ing the great national emer<2;ency, the Bureau has made use of all 

 available means to secure tne fullest practicable utilization of the 

 country's aquatic resources. To this end it has cooperated effectively 



5 



