132 American Fisheries Society 



fishing is usually prosecuted at the greatest disadvantage. 

 W. F. Thompson, in his Preliminary Report on the Life- 

 History of the Halibut (Rep. B. C. Com'r of Fisheries 

 for 1914, pp. 76-99), as a result of his study of the 

 Pacific halibut, says, "It may be stated with confidence 

 that the halibut breeds on this coast between the middle 

 of December and the last of April or the middle of May." 

 This, he states, may be subject to some variation, but is 

 practically correct. 



On February 21 a bill was introduced in Congress, 

 which seeks to establish a closed season on the catching 

 of halibut on the banks in the Pacific Ocean during the 

 months of December and January, and prohibiting, un- 

 der penalties, any violation of the act ; also setting aside 

 a certain area in Southeast Alaska as a nursery for hali- 

 but and prohibiting fishing in this restricted area at any 

 time. 



As Canadian vessels also fish on these same banks, 

 and a closed season would not be of much value unless 

 it included both nations, the act provides that it shall 

 not take effect until Canada has enacted concurrent or 

 essentially similar regulations governing its own people 

 and vessels. 



The fact that the halibut attains maturity slowly as 

 compared with the salmons, for instance, makes it espe- 

 cially necessary that it should have some protection. 

 Thompson's investigations (loc. cit., p. 93), show that 

 "there are but relatively few halibut which mature dur- 

 ing the eighth year of their lives, the chances being one 

 in twenty-five against obtaining such a one, and there 

 are fish still immature in the fifteenth year of their age. 

 The eighth is, however, the age of a large proportion of 

 the fish in Hecate Strait at the time of capture. In 

 Hecate Strait but 14 per cent, of the female fish caught 

 had completed their twelfth year and but 5 per cent, their 

 sixteenth year. Off Kodiak Island 31 per cent, were be- 

 yond the twelfth year and 12 per cent, beyond the six- 

 teenth. This increased percentage of mature fish may, 

 of course, be characteristic of the banks which have been 



