CHAPTER VI 



THE ORGANIZATION AND FUNCTIONS OF THE 

 BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



THE primary function of the Bureau of Fisheries is the 

 conservation of aquatic life in all its forms. This chapter 

 proposes to consider how well the bureau has carried out its 

 primary function by a study of its history, its activities, its 

 administrative organization, and the problems of policy that 

 it has met in the past and those that it faces today. 



History of the Bureau of Fisheries: x The United States 

 negotiated a number of treaties 2 regarding fisheries in the 

 first seventy-five years of its existence, but these treaties 

 were not primarily for the purpose of conservation but were 

 rather attempts to protect American rights in a highly 

 competitive industry. The establishment of the Fish Com- 

 mission in 1871 marks the first actual move toward conser- 

 vation. In that year, largely due to the efforts of the Amer- 

 ican Fish Cultural Society and of Spencer F. Baird, then 

 Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Congress 

 by joint resolution authorized the President to appoint, by 

 and with the advice and consent of the Senate, from among 



1 The author acknowledges the aid obtained on this historical section 

 from an unfinished monograph on the Bureau of Fisheries in the pos- 

 session of the Institute for Government Research and to which he had 

 access through the courtesy of the Editor, Dr. Fred Powell of the 

 Brookings Institution. 



2 Treaty of Paris (1783), Malloy, Treaties, p. 294; Treaty of London 

 (1818), ibid., p. 312; North Pacific Fishing Treaty with Russia, ibid., 

 P. 1513. 



US 



