CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 



83 



to careful scientific investigation of the 

 many marine problems which are of 

 greater interest to the growing canning 

 industry and the fish-consuming public to- 

 day than ever before. 



The new boat has acquitted hei-self thus 

 far even better than Captain Nidever had 

 dared to hope. Having superintended 

 every detail of her construction and feel- 

 ing confident of her seagoing qualities, 

 Nidever stood out from under the lee of 

 Catalina Island at the height of the heavi- 

 est storm of the winter and gave his com- 

 mand a full-speed drive right into as rough 

 a seaway as ever she is likely to find in 

 the regular course of duty. "Albacore" 

 stood up to her work splendidly ; kept 

 above everything but spray, shipping no 

 solid water at all. 



In design, while following in general 

 the approved practice of the most success- 

 ful fishing-boat builders for southern con- 

 ditions, the "Albacore" departs somewhat 

 in behalf of greater speed without sacrifice 

 of sea-keeping ability, attained largely 

 through a refinement of lines. Much more 

 in the way of human comfort has been 

 built into her also, as the state men, ward- 

 ens and investigators who must live and 

 labor aboard for days at a time are to 

 make of her a floating home and workshop 

 combined. Especially when making ex- 

 perimental hauls of scientific gear to pros- 

 pect the sea floor the boat is designed so 

 as to use a sail and make use of favor- 

 able winds, thus saving distillate. 



The commercial fisheries x-esearch de- 

 partment of the Fish and Game Commis- 

 sion has laid out a comprehensive program 

 of investigation work for the year, 

 fraught with prime importance to the 

 fishing industry and through it, the entire 

 public. Mr. William F. Thompson, ichthy- 

 ologist, has been busy with studies of the 

 albacore, halibut and sardine, striving to 

 free the atmosphere of some of the theo- 

 ries prevalent by finding out the exact 

 facts, some of which can be ascertained 

 with convincing certainty. He has been 

 working on the boat much of the time. 

 The Japanese albacore experts from the 

 Imperial Fisheries College of Japan have 

 made numerous trips upon the new boat 

 whose name commemorates the wonderful 

 fish that in a few short years has suc- 

 ceeded from the status of once despised 



by all, to the exalted plane of premier 

 commercial importance in the South, a 

 standing testimonial to the pitiful truth 

 that the American food-consuming pub'ic 

 doesn't know a good thing when it sees it, 

 but has to be convinced by barrels oi 

 printer's ink, and the adoption of a dif- 

 ferent name ! 



Quite a lively interest attaches to the 

 work of the Japanese albacore fishermen, 

 whose experiments with long-line and 

 deep-trolling methods are being embodied 

 in an exhaustive report. 



In the South, the public long since has 

 learned to take the little brown men 

 mighty seriously as fishermen ; and in go- 

 ing to Japan for the most advanced scien- 

 tific thought in marine fisheries methods, 

 the Fish and Game Commission sought to 

 standardize the production of albacore L'y 

 demonstrating methods to catch them in 

 winter. This was an intelligent following- 

 up of Mr. Thompson's sximmer work in 

 demonstrating that the albacore merely 

 descend to lower levels In the colder 

 weather, rather than migrate as many 

 previously had supposed. The value of 

 a discovery that would stabilize the alba- 

 core supply is so well appreciated by the 

 big southern fish packers that every de- 

 tail of the work of the state toward this 

 end is being watched with keenest interest 

 by these men who have put southern 

 California on the map as a source of sea- 

 food supply for the world. 



Among other objects of the "Albacore's" 

 work this summer is tuat of extending 

 the known range of the rich and delicious 

 sablefish to include the deeper off-shore 

 banks of southern California. Rock cod 

 fishermen get a sprinkling of fish they call 

 "black" or "blue cod," and it has been 

 noted that the rock cod seem to run larger 

 on the deeper parts of a bank ; so by sys- 

 tematically working the depths, the 

 present small size of the sablefish may 

 give place to a fish whose proportions are 

 more nearly those of commercial require- 

 ments. The federal government made 

 quite a publicity campaign in behalf of 

 the sablefish some time ago ; and the fish 

 needs all the promotion it can get, as 

 people in the South are not educated to it 

 as yet, only a relatively few housewives 

 understanding what a choice and always 

 desirable boiling or broiling fish it is, the 



