CAI.TPORNIA FISH AND GAME. 



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presence of wliicih lind been I'or years a fcalurt' of Califoniia, \hv. ban 

 was lifted from the Chinese nets in southei-n San Francisco Kay in 

 1915. Tlie ]iets do less damage in that pai-t of tlie bay as there are 

 fewer young fish there of valuable vai'ieties for the reason that there 

 is little fresh water flowing in that portion of the bay. The young of 

 the herring are not found there, as they spawn in the upper bay, nor 

 are the young of the smelt, shad, striped bass or salmon found there, for 

 they are hatched only in the larger rivers and as they descend to the bay 

 they distribute themselves in the brackish water nursery of the upper 

 or San Pablo Bay. Shrimps were not very plentiful in south San 

 Francisco Bay on account of the former heavy fishing and on account of 

 the gradually increasing salinity of the water. Drying of shrimps had 

 also l)een prohibited and it was found not very profitable to fish for tlu? 

 fresh market only. During the first year after they resumed fishing 

 the markets took less than 350,000 pounds of shrimps. They could 

 have had more but there was not the former demand. The amount of 



M 



Fig. 



Drying sliiimps at Point San Pedro in 1010. Photographs by X. P.. Scol'u 1. 



fresh shrimps marketed has increased each year until now the amount 

 is equal to that of any former year when shrimp fishing was at its 

 height. The shrimps have increased in numbers in all portions of the 

 1")ays, as also have the number of small fish, especially the young of the 

 striped bass. It has now become profitable to use the shrimp beam 

 trawl which, towed with the tide, catches the shrimp with a very small 

 per cent of young fish. As illustrative of the damage done by the 

 Chinese nets in former yeare the following is quoted from mv note 

 book of 1897 : 



"The average catch per day for each boat at the San Rafael 

 (Point San Pedro) fishery, during the last two weeks of July, was 

 seventy baskets, each basket weighing about ninety pounds, making 

 in all six thousand three hundred pounds. The average number 

 of boats out each day was seven, making in all a daily catch of 

 forty-four thousand one hundred pounds. For thirteen days (the 

 time they were under continual observation) this number is swelled 



