CALIFORNIA COOPERATIVE OCEANIC FISHERIES INVESTIGATIONS 127 



sequently when the income from this tax proved inadequate, the Legis- 

 lature, again at the request of the fishing industry, increased the special 

 tax to a dollar a ton, and extended it to landings of anchovy, jack 

 mackerel. Pacific mackerel, and squid. This may well be the first time 

 in history that an industry has requested an increase in its own taxes 

 to finance research, and the attitude that prompted it represents an 

 encouraging trend away from the concept of reckless exploitation to- 

 ward that of scientific management and conservation. 



The reasons for developing a cooperative program involving several 

 agencies were the magnitude of the undertaking and the desire to utilize 

 as effectively as possible the available scientific manpower, experience, 

 and research facilities. Some idea of the immensity of the project can 

 be gained from the fact that hydrographic stations have been occupied, 

 many of them on a monthly schedule, over an area of 670,000 square 

 miles. 



Each cooperating agency has accepted responsibility for one or 

 more specific phases of the investigation: 



(1) The California Academy of Sciences is working on the be- 

 havior and physiology of sardines as these can be studied under aquar- 

 ium conditions. 



(2) The California Division of Fish and Game is concentrating 

 on statistical studies of year classes, on young fish surveys, and on meth- 

 ods of locating and identifying sardine schools. 



(3) The Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University is study- 

 ing temperature patterns and changes throughout the year, in and near 

 Monterey Bay. 



(4) The Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of 

 California is conducting extensive oceanographic surveys, (including 

 plankton studies), and processing all the physical and chemical ocean- 

 ographic data obtained by any of the cooperating agencies. 



(5) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible primarily 

 for spawning surveys, and is also conducting some more general phases 

 of the investigation. 



This division of work is not rigid and inflexible; often personnel 

 from two or more agencies work on projects together. 



Although the investigation is still far from completion, the follow- 

 ing conclusions may be drawn: 



(1) The decline of the fishery was due to a combination of intense 

 fishing effort and a succession of poor spawning years. Even though 

 overfishing may not be the primary cause of the decline, when a fishery 

 declines for any reason, overfishing then inevitably occurs, because 

 greater fishing effort is concentrated on a smaller population. Thus 



