LAND FOR WILD LIFE AND RECREATION 221 



trol of seal hunting, the seals have been saved from extinction. 

 They furnish a large annual crop of pelts. The proceeds from 

 the sale of these pelts is divided among the various contracting 

 nations on a proportional basis. 



CONTROL OF WATERWAYS 



To protect the fresh water fish, the main thing is to control 

 the streams. Both navigable streams and their tributaries are un' 

 der the control of the federal government. The states, however, 

 claim the right to the fish in the streams. The federal government 

 controls the right to build dams or do anything else that might 

 affect the passage of boats. Except in special cases, no one 

 controls the pouring of sewage and industrial waste into 

 streams. These special cases are usually connected with one of 

 the various state compacts such as the Colorado River State 

 Compact or the Port of New York Authority. The major 

 point of these agreements is usually something far removed 

 from the issue of the preservation of fish. It may be water 

 conservation, or sewage disposal, or the protection of naviga" 

 tion. However, somewhere in these agreements there may be a 

 clause protecting the wild life. And even if there were no such 

 clauses, these compacts are primarily ways to use water wisely, 

 and that wise use is a help to the fish. 



THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



The Bureau of Fisheries investigates methods of preserving 

 and increasing the supply of valuable food fish. 19 Thus it was 

 the Bureau of Fisheries that established a halibut fishery on the 

 Pacific Coast. Previously the halibut had been an Atlantic 

 Ocean fish, but after investigating the market and the natural 

 conditions in the Pacific, the Bureau's scientists decided that 

 such a project would be successful and "planted" the halibut. 

 It administers the salmon fisheries of Alaska and the fur seal 



19 Van Hise and Havemeyer, op. cit., p. 399. 



