REPORT 



OF THE 



COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



Department of Commerce, 



Bureau of Fisheries, 

 Washi7igton, September IS, 1921. 

 Sir : I have the honor to present herewith a report giving a resume 

 of the operations of the Bureau of Fisheries during the fiscal year 

 ending June 30, 1921. The major captions under which the activities 

 are considered are inquiry respecting food fishes and fishing grounds, 

 propagation and distribution of food fishes, artificial propagation 

 of fresh-water mussels, relations with the fishery industries, Alaska 

 fisheries service, Alaska fur-seal service, and miscellaneous adminis- 

 trative functions. 



INQUIRY RESPECTING FOOD FISHES AND FISHING GROUNDS. 



nrpoRTAxcE or the service. 



The resources of the fresh and salt waters of the United States 

 constitute great national assets as the means of livelihood of large 

 numbers of people, as the basis of important industries, and as a 

 conspicuous source of food. It is toward the manifold problems 

 relating to the perpetuation of the supply of raw materials that the 

 activities of the Bureau in biological investigation and experimenta- 

 tion are chiefly directed. It would be a shortsighted National or 

 State policy that allowed the fishery resources to decline indefinitely 

 or that failed to lay the basis of definite and exact knowledge neces- 

 sary for their maintenance and increase. 



Notwithstanding the importance of this matter, the Bureau's 

 activities in this field have been seriously restricted, and at times 

 altogether suspended in certain lines, by the low and inflexible salary 

 scale which prevents the maintenance of a full staff of trained in- 

 vestigators. Under existing conditions some positions can not be 

 filled, while in others assistants are retained for only brief periods. 

 A further handicap is that promotions necessary to retain the 

 services of a competent employee can often be made only by a trans- 

 fer and change of duty irom a field in which the employee has 

 acfjuired skill to another in which he must have further experience 

 before he can be expected to render service in proportion to his gen- 

 eral ability. These and other disadvantageous conditions can readily 

 be remedied by congressional action allowing the Secretary of Com- 



