110 American Fisheries Society 



ing accomplished by inducing the public to fish with a 

 very fine line instead of the big hand-lines which they 

 had formerly used, a procedure that made it impossible 

 to land a fish of sixty pounds weight within half an hour ; 

 previous to this these large fishes having been hauled in 

 with a hand-line in a very few minutes. In this way the 

 Tuna Club produced a remarkable change. Distinguished 

 anglers all over the country joined it and a great object 

 lesson was given in fair play and conservation; as a re- 

 sult, the over-catching and waste was absolutely stopped. 



Very soon another element, menacing to the fishes, 

 came into the field. This was the introduction of the 

 gasoline launch. This enabled hordes of alien fishermen 

 — Greeks, Italians, Chinese and Japanese — to reach the 

 island, across the Santa Catalina Channel, in an hour or 

 two, haul their nets and return in a very short time. It 

 did not take many years for the effect of this to be appar- 

 ent, and conservationists in Los Angeles County, inter- 

 ested in sea fishing, took up the matter and began to in- 

 terest themselves in methods to regulate the catch. Every 

 attempt was made to induce the fishermen to observe 

 some care during the spawning season of fishes, and a 

 special attempt was made to protect the spawning sar- 

 dines in Avalon bay. 



It was soon found that it was like "talking up the 

 wind," as these men were out for fish and they proposed 

 to take all they could get on every trip, and if the market 

 was so over-loaded that there was danger of the price 

 being lowered, boatloads of the finest kinds of market 

 fish were thrown into the ocean and fed to the sharks. 

 Conservationists finding that they could not argue with 

 these men, sought the aid of the state legislature and the 

 county authorities, but here politics entered into the situ- 

 ation and it was evident that the market fishermen's vot< 

 was a decided factor in the situation. Various attempts 

 were made to secure laws and legislation, but for one 

 reason or another, they all failed until 1913. During all 

 these years the Tuna Club had led in these fights for the 



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