Il6 PROBLEMS IN WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



the civil employees of the government, a Commissioner of 

 Fish and Fisheries to serve without additional compen- 

 sation. 3 



That the fisheries resources of the nation were inexhaus- 

 tible, no one in this country doubted until the middle of the 

 last century. However, the demand for food fish products 

 grew with the increase of population while the practice of 

 ice-packing made possible the widening of the market. 

 This led to the speeding-up of the industry without thought 

 of future supply. By the late sixties the fact of the de- 

 crease of fishery resources was established beyond a doubt. 



The creation of the office of Commissioner of Fish and 

 Fisheries was an outstanding event in the history of the 

 conservation movement signifying as it did the changed 

 national policy toward wild-life resources. The old theory 

 of " inexhaustibility " was being questioned and from this 

 first step was to come the whole great movement for con- 

 servation of fishery resources. 



Spencer Baird had been following the development of the 

 fishing industry with interest and studying conditions along 

 the New England coasts where the greatest depletion had 

 taken place. It was from the results of his study and the 

 interest of Henry Dawes, a member of Congress from 

 Massachusetts, that the joint resolution authorizing the 

 establishment of the Fish Commission was passed. In a 

 speech before the House in 1871, Representative Dawes 

 quoted at length from a letter of Mr. Baird which read as 

 follows : * 



During my visit last summer to Vineyard Sound and other 

 maritime portions of New England I was much impressed by 

 the great diminution in the numbers of fish which furnish the 



8 1 6 Stat. L. 594. 



4 Congressional Globe, 4ist Cong., 3rd Sess., pp. 584-85. 



