60 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



deiDleted seal herds of the United States, Russia, and Japan can not 

 fail to be salutary. For the first time the seals receive an adequate 

 measure of protection that all experience and observation have shown 

 to be necessary for the iirevention of commercial extinction. 



FISHERIES or BOUNDARY WATERS OF UNITED STATES AND CANADA. 



Eeference has been made in previous reports to the treaty between 

 the United States and Great Britain, signed April 11, 1908, which 

 provided for the appointment of two international fisheries commis- 

 sioners with power to draw up a set of uniform and common regu- 

 lations for the protection and preservation of the food fishes in the 

 boundary waters between the United States and Canada. 



After very comprehensive field investigations by the commission- 

 ers, assisted by the Bureau of Fisheries, during which every fishery 

 and practically every fishing ground from Passamaquoddy Bay to 

 Vancouver Island were covered, the commissioners made their report, 

 which on February 2, 1910, was transmitted to Congress by the Presi- 

 dent in order that legislative action necessary for. the enforcement 

 of the regulations might be taken. 



On May 22, 1911, a bill passed the Senate giving the force and effect 

 of law on the United States side of the boundary line to all the regu- 

 lations except ten. Unfortunately, those from which approval was 

 withheld are most vitally important to the preservation of the most 

 valuable fisheries in international waters, namely, the waters of Puget 

 Sound and Lake Erie ; and this action has had the effect of vitiating 

 the treaty, as Canada, it is understood, will decline to accept the 

 treaty with the regidations in question omitted. 



INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN FISHERY WORK. 



The United States Government, as represented by the Depart- 

 ment of Commerce and Labor and the Bureau of Fisheries, has been 

 officially invited to become a member of the International Council 

 for the Exploration of the Sea. This organization, founded in 1902, 

 Avith permanent headquarters in Copenhagen, is composed of official 

 delegates of most of the nations of western Europe, and has for its 

 chief object the prosecution of biological and physical iuA'estiga- 

 tions of the sea in the interests of the fishing industry. The council 

 acts as the adviser of the affiliated nations in matters pertaining to 

 the sea fisheries and is accumulating a vast fund of facts to be applied 

 in the consideration of national and international fishery questions 

 affecting the preservation of the fish supply. 



The acceptance of this invitation is strongly advocated, and the 

 Department of State has included in the estimates for foreign inter- 

 course for the fiscal year 1913 an item covering the pro rata share 



