80 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



tion methods and policies; and (4) legal requirements and corporate 

 structure. The publication contains, also, suggested legal forms and 

 corporate papers for "fishermen's marketing associations. Copies are 

 available for distribution, upon request, by the Bureau. 



In addition to the above, considerable assistance has been given to 

 fishery cooperative associations and groups of fishermen interested in 

 forming such associations. 



STATISTICAL INVESTIGATIONS 



Fishery statistics are collected by the Bureau to serve two principal 

 purposes — first, biological, and second, economic. For this reason the 

 Bureau must plan its statistical surveys to obtain comprehensive data 

 for furnishing a complete and reliable picture of the condition and 

 trend of the fisheries. The collection and compilation of the great 

 mass of data necessary, involves many problems. The fisheries are 

 broad in scope, including over IGO varieties of aquatic products which 

 enter into commercial production. These, many of which are migra- 

 tory, are taken by a great variety of types of gear in water areas along 

 our seacoast and in our interior lakes and streams. If the biological 

 aspect is to be served, complete annual statistics are needed on each 

 of these phases in every section. If the economic aspect is to be 

 served, statistics are needed on not only the phases listed above relative 

 to the biological aspect but also on the price structure, the processing 

 function, and the marketing and distributing functioDS. 



Statistics on these latter phases of the industry should be collected 

 and published as soon as possible after the close of the business transac- 

 tions in order to be of maximum value to the industry and others 

 interested in the fisheries. However, because of limited funds and 

 personnel, it has not been possible to collect and publish these figures 

 as currently as desired. For the same reason it has not been possible 

 to collect statistics on the fisheries of the entire United States on an 

 annual basis. 



BIOLOGICAL ASPECT 



The biological aspect must consider two problems — the conservation 

 and sustained supply of the resource and the prediction of future 

 trends or yield. Since our fisheries are usually prosecuted in areas 

 not under private ownership, the problem of the conservation of these 

 fisheries is of national concern. It, therefore, is important that close 

 watch be kept of the condition of the various fisheries to detect deple- 

 tion so that remedial measures can be promulgated timely and wisely. 

 For this reason it is imperative that current statistical data be ob- 

 tained on the yield of our fisheries. 



These statistics then furnish the biologist with the background upon 

 which to base his prediction of future trends and yields. This he 

 does by coupling the statistical data with studies of the life history of 

 the species. Difficulty is experienced in making these predictions 

 because the supply (or population) of the species cannot be seen, as is 

 the case with farm animals or crops. The more complete and more 

 reliable the statistics on yield are, the better foundation the biologist 

 has for conducting his studies. The Bureau, therefore, aims to obtain 

 a complete picture of each individual fishery to further these biological 

 studies. 



