CONSERVATION OF THE HALIBUT — ^THOMPSON 363 



can be brought together and grasped as a whole through a unified, 

 comj^lete system of statistical observation that does not recognize 

 boundary lines — a vital matter, for it could not be understood if but 

 a part could be seen. For that reason the challenge is a very real 

 one and the responsibility great. 



A partial answer cannot suffice. Scientists have worked out rates 

 of growth of fish, then have given their guess as to what restraint 

 is necessary ; they have discovered spawning seagons and times, then 

 have said that such times were or were not proper for fishing. 

 Little concrete reasoning had connected interesting fact and pro- 

 posed regulation. This cannot in good faith be the answer to this 

 problem. 



When the Commission was created, it faced a great depletion of 

 the supply, especially on the nearby banks. Its first step, that of 

 any good scientist, was to gather and analyze all the available in- 

 formation regarding the fishery and its history. It found the halibut 

 fishery splendidly adapted for this purpose because it was carried 

 on by a homogeneous class of fishermen, intelligent and helpful, 

 using the same methods, speaking the same language, and operating 

 on the same banks. It was able to obtain from these fishermen 

 records that brought to light the story of the fishery and the banks 

 from the beginning and to create a statistical system of observation 

 for the future. 



The story could not have been uncovered without a scientific 

 method of measuring the changing abundance and the changing in- 

 tensity of the fishery. This can be best done by comparing the yield 

 of a definite unit of gear from year to year, and by following the 

 number of such units used. In many of the great fisheries of the 

 world the gear differs greatly from vessel to vessel, and undergoes 

 with time a gradual but great change in structure and efficiency, 

 so that it is of little use in judging what has happened. But in the 

 halibut fishery of the Pacific the gear has been much more constant 

 and better standardized. It is a long bottom line on which are 

 fastened short lines approximately 5 feet in length, set 9 or 13 

 feet apart. Each of these short lines carries a single hook, baited 

 usually with herring. The whole, called a " skate " or " string of 

 skates ", is set on the bottom in depths of 50 to 175 fathoms. There 

 were, of course, some problems connected with the relative efficiency 

 of hooks according to their size, as to whether they were 9 or 13 

 feet apart and on heavy or light line. But these problems of 

 standardization were readily solved, giving a sufficiently reliable 

 unit of effort in the set of a unit of line a certain number of 

 fathoms long. The fishermen themselves kept and used records 

 of its yield for the purpose of gaging the results of their operations. 

 These records as to catch per unit of effort had from the beginning 



