364 AISTNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1935 



of the fishery been kept in the log books of the captains, enabling 

 the catch to be analyzed according to the bank of origin. In the 

 offices of the Commission they were collected and sorted according 

 to nearly 40 areas, each embracing 60 miles of the trend of the coast. 

 Records were obtained for as early as 1906, but, of course, they were 

 much more complete for the years subsequent to 1925 when the 

 Commission began its work. It is believed that since that time 

 the records are more complete than for any other fishery. 



Early records showed that when the first transcontinental rail- 

 road had thrown the markets of the eastern United States open to 

 our western fishermen, the whole of the yield had come from a rela- 

 tively small area within 500 miles to the north of the landing ports 

 of Vancouver and Seattle. From thi^ small area the total reached 

 a maximum of about 60,000,000 pounds in 1912. But this great yield 

 was only obtained by a disproportionate groAvth of the fleet, be- 

 cause the return per unit was continually falling. From 300 pounds 

 per unit in 1906, the returns had fallen to 50 in 1926 and to 35 in 

 1929. The expansion of the fleet for the time masked this decline 

 in abundance, but after attaining the maximum the total yield began 

 to fail with the return per unit and in 1926 had reached a level of 

 about 26,000,000. The original sources had failed under the strain. 

 Not merely had the tremendous expansion of the fleet failed to in- 

 crease its yield permanently, a serious economic matter in itself, 

 but had caused it to fall to 45 percent of its maximum; and the 

 abundance was steadily falling when the Commission took up its 

 work. 



In the meantime, however, the fleet had been undergoing great 

 changes in efficiency and economy. The market demanded and the 

 fleet furnished nearly as great a yield as ever, but to do so new boats 

 were built capable of going farther and tapping new stocks of hali- 

 but on new and more distant banks. Many mechanical improve- 

 ments were made, so that not only could vessels continue to fish on 

 the depleted halibut banks but could go great distances, complete 

 their catch in a short time, and return without prohibitive expense. 

 The whole story was a vivid illustration of the application of power 

 as our scientific age has developed it and made it available. The 

 outstanding events were the adoption of gasoline engines in 1906 

 and of Diesel engines in 1921. But other seemingly less important 

 things were vital. Electric lights permitted a 24-hour day on the 

 fishing banks. Power lifted steel anchor cables and hauled the fish- 

 ing lines themselves. Many other improvements were made, each 

 contributing its bit to the expansion of the fishing grounds and to 

 the operation at a lower level of abundance on the older grounds. 



The result was a maintained total catch, hiding successive deple- 

 tions of bank after bank, until the yield that came originally from 



