78 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
fish-hatching operations and an exhibit of some of the activities of 
the Bureau. 
FISHERY MATTERS IN CONGRESS. 
By a joint resolution approved February 24, 1915, the Secretary of 
Commerce was authorized to postpone the sale of all skins in posses- 
sion of the Government taken from seals killed on the Pribilof 
Islands for food purposes until such time as, in his discretion, he shall 
deem advisable. 
A bill was passed on February 18, 1915, authorizing the Secretary 
of Commerce, through the Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Bureau 
of Fisheries, to make a survey of oyster beds in the State of Texas. 
Owing to a defect which imposed an unintended financial burden on 
the Bureau, the bill was withdrawn by the Senate after it had been 
sent to the President for approval, and was not reenacted. 
Defects in the law of June 20, 1906, for the protection of sponges 
were corrected in a bill which passed both Houses and was approved 
August 15, 1914. This law, which was advocated by the Bureau, 
regulates the taking of sponges in extraterritorial waters of the coast 
of Florida. The principal provision of the act is the limiting of the 
size of sponges that may be taken, or landed, cured, offered for sale, 
or had in possession to 5 inches in maximum diameter. 
A bill to prohibit interstate and foreign commerce in lobster meat 
and.in undersized or egg-bearing lobsters was introduced in the 
House on July 2, 1914, and referred to the Committee on Interstate 
and Foreign Commerce. 
A bill approved by this Bureau authorizing the Commissioner of 
Fisheries to conduct investigations and experiments for ameliorating 
the damage wrought to the fisheries by predaceous fishes and other 
aquatic animals was introduced in the House and recommended by 
the Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries. This bill was 
so amended on the floor of the House before it passed that body as to 
leave the Bureau with fewer powers than it already possessed, and it 
failed of passage in the Senate. 
The Sixty-third Congress expired without making effective the 
treaty of April 18, 1908, providing for joint international regulations 
for the fisheries in the contiguous waters of the United States and 
Canada. The matter had been pending in Congress since 1910. The 
present international commissioner on behalf of the United States 
labored assiduously to meet the objections that had been urged against 
various features of the regulations and cooperated in the drafting of 
a bill which fully safeguarded all the interests of the United States 
fishermen. This failure to respect our treaty obligations leaves the 
international fisheries in a chaotic condition and leads to the fear 
that further depletion of international waters will result because of 
inharmonious laws and incompatible jurisdictions. 
In March, 1915, a bill to amend the laws for the protection and 
regulation of the fisheries of Alaska was introduced in the House, 
but owing to the imminent adjournment of Congress no action was 
taken thereon. 
