REPORT 
OF’ THE 
COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, 
Bureau or FisHeries, 
Washington, September 14, 1921, 
Str: I have the honor to present herewith a report giving a résumé 
of the operations of the Bureau of Fisheries during the fiscal year 
ending June 30,1921. The major captions under which the activities 
are considered are inquiry respecting food fishes and fishing grounds, 
propagation and distribution of food fishes, artificial propagation 
of fresh-water mussels, relations with the fishery industries, Alaska 
fisheries service, Alaska fur-seal service, and miscellaneous adminis- 
trative functions. 
INQUIRY RESPECTING FOOD FISHES AND FISHING GROUNDS. 
IMPORTANCE OF THE SERVICE. 
The resources of the fresh and salt »waters of the United States 
constitute great national assets as the means of livelihood of large 
numbers of people, as the basis of important industries, and as a 
conspicuous source of food. It is toward the manifold problems 
relating to the perpetuation of the supply of raw materials that the 
activities of the Bureau in biological investigation and experimenta- 
tion are chiefly directed. It would be a shortsighted National or 
State policy that allowed the fishery resources to decline indefinitely 
or that failed to lay the basis of definite and exact knowledge neces- 
sary for their maintenance and increase. 
Notwithstanding the importance of this matter, the Bureau’s 
activities in this field have been seriously restricted, and at times 
altogether suspended in certain lines, by the low and inflexible salary 
scale which prevents the maintenance of a full staff of trained in- 
vestigators. Under existing conditions some positions can not be 
filled, while in others assistants are retained for only brief periods. 
A further handicap is that promotions necessary to retain the 
services of a competent employee can often be made only by a trans- 
fer and change of duty from a field in which the employee has 
acquired skill to another in which he must have further experience 
before he can be expected to render service in proportion to his gen- 
eral ability. These and other disadvantageous conditions can readily 
be remedied by congressional action allowing the Secretary of Com- 
5 
