California fish and game. 179 



commission's hatchery department, so that in 1918 over twelve million pounds of 

 salmon were caught, which retailed at an average price of 25 cents per pound, making 

 the total value of the catch $3,000,000. 



Striped bass, catfish, black bass, shad, blue gill, calico bass and other food fishes 

 were introduced into the waters of this state by the Fish and Game Commission. 

 As a result of this work, 1,400,000 pounds of striped bass were caught in California 

 in the year 191 S. They were retailed at about 25 cents per pound, or $325,000. 

 During the last three years over twelve million pounds of shad were taken in Cali- 

 fornia, from thirty to sixty-five carloads of roe-shad being shipped to the Eastern 

 markets each year, retailing at not less than 20 cents per pound, making an average 

 of $800,000 per year. 



Catfish are also caught in large numbers. In 1918. 200,000 pounds, worth 25 cents 

 per pound, or $50,000, were sent to our markets. The annual catch of these four 

 species of fish introduced or re-established by the Fish and Game Commission is 

 valued at $4,175,000. In fact, a total of 250,000,000 pounds of fish were caught in 

 California during the year 191 S. The fish packed by canners and curers, alone, were 

 worth approximately $20,000,000, to say nothing of the fresh fish sent to the markets. 



Surely an industry of such magnitude is worth protecting, and any money spent 

 in investigating the life history of our food fishes can not truthfully be said to be 

 extravagantly spent without achieving results, particularly when the fish introduced, 

 propagated and protected by the commission bring into the State of California, 

 $4,175,000 per year — over ten times the amount expended by the state in the protec- 

 tion, propagation and conservation of all fish and game. 



As a result of the investigations by the experts of the commission, a new season 

 and limit was adopted and the catch of crabs increased 40,000 dozen per year, valued 

 a I $100,000. 



Besides the important work of the Fish and Game Commission in propagating and 

 conserving commercial fishes, it has also propagated and distributed millions of trout 

 and has stocked many waters which had been entirely barren of fish life. Bear Lake, 

 an artificial lake in San Bernardino County, about eight miles long, was stocked by 

 the Fish and Game Commission. Hatcheries and egg-taking stations were built and 

 maintained there and the supplj' of fish kept up so tliat now the fifty or sixty thou- 

 sand people who visit the lake annually obtain excellent fishing. In addition to Bear 

 Lake, the commission has also planted trout and black bass in Huntington Lake, 

 Bass Lake, Shaver Lake, Clear Lake, Juniper Lake, Medicine Lake, Rea Lakes, 

 Sixty Lake Basin and many other lakes throughout the Sieri'a Nevada and the Coast 

 Range mountains, too numerous to mention. In all of these lakes excellent fishing 

 is to be had and they are annually visited by tens of thousands of anglers. 



Innumerable barren streams in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and elsewhere in 

 this state have been stocked with trout. All of the streams in the Yosemite 

 National Park above the floor of the valley were barren of fish life before they were 

 stocked by the Fish and Game Commission. Golden trout have been distributed 

 from Volcano Creek throughout the Sierra Nevada Mountains, as far north as the 

 Yosemite Valley. 



The fishing in some of our best streams is kept up solely through the work of 

 the Fish and Game Commission. When the run of black-spotted trout, the only 

 trout indigenous to the Truckee River, was stopped by the dams in the river in the 

 State of Nevada, the Fish and Game Commission planted Rainbow, Eastern Brook 

 and Loch Leven trout in this most excellent fishing stream, so that, now, while 

 black-spotted trout are seldom, if every caught, excellent catches are made of the 

 varieties introduced by the Commission. 



The banks of the Sacramento River on Sundays and holidays, in fact, nearly 

 every day, are lined with anglers fishing for catfish, crappie, blue gill, calico bass and 

 other exotic fish introduced into the waters of this state by the Fish and Game 

 Commission. 



The work of the Fish and Game Commission in the protection of the game 

 resources of the state has also been productive of excellent results. Deer are 

 admittedly much more numerous now than they were ten or fifteen years ago. 

 Cottontail rabbits are becoming so numerous that the residents of Fish and Game 

 District No. 2 and Fish and Game District No. 4 have asked this Legislature that 

 the protection given cottontail and brush rabbits be removed and that they be placed 

 upon the list of predatory animals which may be taken at any time. 



As a I'esult of the protection given pheasants, those planted by the commission 

 have become so numerous in favorable localities, that open seasons for the taking 

 of these birds are demanded in Inyo and other counties and will probably be granted 

 by this session of the Legislature. 



Quail and doves are holding their own in most localities. Wild ducks and wild 

 geese, under the protection given them both by the state and federal government, are 

 so numerous that in many localities, they are considered a pest, particularly in the 

 rice fields of the Sacramento Valley and the grain fields in the lower San Joaquin 

 Valley. In fact, there is now pending in the Legislature a bill providing that the 

 protection given ducks and geese be, to some extent, removed, in order that the 

 farmers of the state may obtain relief from their depredations. 



