64 FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



get during this season of 1922. So far they have failed to get as 

 many fish as they would like. This has been most disappointing for 

 they were depending on profits from a good tuna pack to help offset 

 the losses of last year. 



The long-finned tuna or albacore, which is known by the trade name 

 "White meat tuna," is found within a very narrow range on the west 

 coast of North America and it is not likely that this fishery can be 

 expanded much beyond its present dimensions. In fact certain pheno- 

 mena have developed which may indicate depletion and these are 

 causing us to watch this important fishery most carefully. We feel 

 confident, however, that the other varieties of tuna will support a 

 larger industry than they have been called upon to supply in the past. 

 Our larger fisheries, with the exception of salmon, are of quite recent 

 origin and it is believed that none of them with the exception of 

 salmon and possibly albacore, have been fully developed. It is to be 

 expected our sea fisheries wiU grow and that our sardine industry will 

 surpass the importance it reached during the war. 



As has been pointed out in former reports, the primary and almost 

 the sole duty of this department is to look out for the conservation of 

 our fisheries, so as to safeguard this valuable resource of the state 

 against overfishing and, as far as possible, to keep our fisheries up to 

 their highest stage of usefulness. The law is very definite in stating 

 that it is the duty of the Fish and Game Commission to carry on such 

 investigations as are necessary to determine the real abundance of our 

 principal commercial fishes ; to collect accurate data which will show 

 natural fluctuations in abundance as distinguished from those due to 

 overfishing; to make recommendations to the legislature for the con- 

 servation of the fisheries and to enforce the conservation laws which the 

 legislature passes. .These duties, delegated mainly to this department, 

 we have carried out to the best of our ability with the funds which 

 are available for the purpose. 



SALMON FISHERIES. 



We first take up the subject of salmon for, while the salmon fisheries 

 of the state are not of first importance economically, they are of first 

 importance from the standpoint of conservation. The salmon in this 

 state are most urgently in need of greater protection if we are to pre- 

 vent their commercial extinction. The need of better protective 

 measures has been urged at each session of the legislature, but the 

 measures passed have been inadequate and far short of our recom- 

 mendations. In our report of four years ago it was pointed out that 

 the development of salmon trolling in the sea, together with the more 

 intensive fishing in the rivers, and the shutting off of salmon from their 

 spawning beds in the rivers by power and irrigation dams, made it abso- 

 lutely necessary that radical fishing restrictive measures be adopted. 

 Very little was accomplished at that session. In fact, salmon con- 

 servation on the Sacramento River went backward instead of forward, 

 for Sacramento River fishermen had a bill introduced in the legisla- 

 ture which proposed to open up the main fishing grounds (District 

 12b) for salmon fishing during the general closed season of June and 

 July. A compromise was finally arrived at under which June and 



