CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 107 
the University of California. At the same time, a tax of 1$ cents per 
wet ton was levied, and a license, costing a fee of $10.00, was demanded 
of every company harvesting kelp. As soon as the Fish and Game 
Commission assumed control, the beds were numbered consecutively 
from San Diego along the ccast to Point Concepcion and thence about 
the islands, and, in order that after being harvested a bed should have 
sufficient time to recuperate, usually about ninety days being required, 
a system of opening and closing of beds was worked out. This 
measure not only protects the bed from depletion, but assures the 
Fig. 56. Power kelp harvester at work off coast of southern California. Photographed by 
Edward E. Porteous. 
maximum crop. The beds off Santa Barbara were closed for the use of 
the United States Kelp Experimental Plant. In opening the other beds, 
it was arranged so that the harvesting would not interfere with the 
beaches during the summer season, nor with unprotected beaches during 
the winter, it being the intention of those concerned to regulate the 
harvesting of kelp with as little inconvenience as possible to neigh- 
boring communities. 
What effect the harvesting of kelp has on the fishing industry has 
been carefully studied by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, by the Scripps 
Institution and by many fishermen, and no injurious effect has been 
apparent as no fish eges are found attached to the upper portion of the 
kelp plant and only this upper portion is cut. However, kelp-harvesters 
and fishing-gear in the same bed are not good companions, to say the 
least, and better co-ordination between the two industries represented is 
being planned. 
