404 U- S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



the usual coastal fishing: grounds. Evidence has been secured which 

 leads to the belief that during the winter the shrimp move offshore 

 to the deeper and warmer waters of the Gulf. With suitable vessel 

 equipment, Avhich this investigation does not now possess, it should 

 be possible, through extensive fishing during the fall and winter 

 in the offshore waters, to determine whether or not this is the case 

 and also whether or not the shrimp congregate in sufficient quantities 

 in these areas to make a commercial fishery feasible at this time. 



In Texas during the coming year, if arrangements can be made, 

 intensive tagging experiments will be conducted over the entire 

 fishing area. It is hoped through marking experiments to be able 

 to determine the intensity of fishing, particularly in CorpuL-; Christi 

 Bay. It is also probable that at the same time valunble data will 

 be secured on the coastal or offshore movement of the Texas shrimp. 



GREAT LAKES FISHERY INVESTIGATION 



John Van Oostex, in charge 



As in 1934, virtually no field Avork was conducted on the Great 

 Lakes during the calendar year 1935. F. W. Jobes spent 1 week 

 in February at Put in Bay, Ohio, obtaining a collection of young 

 perch from the Ohio Division of Consei'vation, and Dr. Van Oosten 

 spent 1 week in July at Port Huron, Mich., observing the whitefish 

 catch in deep trap nets with special reference to the percentage of 

 undersized fish taken in waters less than 80 feet deep. 



The Bureau maintained its cordial relations with the various Great 

 Lakes States, and provided considerable assistance in drafting and 

 revising fisheries legislation and submitting pertinent data. Ohio 

 submitted 5 bills affecting commercial fisheries; Michigan, 13; and 

 Wisconsin, 12, one of which involved the complete recodification of 

 its laws governing the Great Lakes fisheries. 



Dr. Van Oosten represented the Bureau at 10 conferences and 

 meetings during the year, and at some of these presented papers. 



FISHERY STATISTICS 



A major project undertaken without benefit of precedent was the 

 initiation by the Bureau of Fisheries in 1933 of a detailed statistical 

 study of the Great Lakes fisheries in waters under the jurisdiction of 

 the State of Michigan, based on i-eports of daily fishing activity sub- 

 mitted at the end of each month by all licensed fishermen represented. 

 The Great Lakes fisheries present so many peculiarities that the 

 statistical methods employed in the study of other fisheries are, in 

 general, not applicable. The consequent necessity for the develop- 

 ment of special methods adapted specifically to the investigation of 

 Great Lakes fisheries made it imperative that the first analyses and 

 tabulations of statistical data be carried out in the minutest detail. 

 The task Avas made the more onerous by reason of the fact that the 

 compilation of the statistics of 3 earlier years (1929-32) had to be 

 made in addition to that of the statistics of the current year. The 

 basic tabulations of statistical data have now been completed for all 

 Great Lakes waters under the jurisdiction of the State of Michigan 



