TWENTY-SEVENTH BIENNIAL REPORT. 13 



fresh fish for the markets during the winter months. Great catches of 

 barracuda are made in May and June which flood the markets, these 

 catches being made while the fish are schooling, preliminary to their 

 spawning period. It is probable that a closed season during the sum- 

 mer will need to be inaugurated. 



The law relating to the use of food fish in reduction plants has been 

 enforced, but not without diiifiL-ulties. Several canneries, even after a 

 warning, persisted in utilizing more than twenty-five per cent of their 

 catch and it was found necessary to deprive these canneries of their 

 licenses for a certain term. Several amendments should be made so as 

 to clear up some ambiguities in the law and make it easier of 

 enforcement. 



Clashes between sportsmen, who claim special privileges about piers, 

 breakwaters and about Catalina Island, and the commercial fishermen 

 make patrol in southern California difficult. ^Most of the time of the 

 patrol boat Alhacore is given over to the prevention of the use of 

 dragnets within the three-mile limit. In addition to the patrol of the 

 Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, attention has recently been given 

 the Humboldt Bay area. To give an efficient patrol in this latter loca- 

 tion it will be necessary to furnish a larger, more seaworthy boat. 



STATE FISHERIES LABORATORY. 



A splendid fireproof laboratory building, of reinforced concrete, 

 with tile partitions and red tile roof, now stands on the corner of 

 Seaside avenue and Tuna street in close proximity to the wharvas and 

 canneries of San Pedro. Here the scientific staff engaged in fishery 

 research is satisfactorily housed. 



"The aims of the State Fisheries Laboratory are, in the fewest pos- 

 sible words, the observation of the condition of the fisheries with a view 

 to their preservation and freest possible use. That is, true conserva- 

 tion. Statistics, so detailed, so extensive, and so accurately gathered 

 that changes in fishing ground, and many other things may be dis- 

 counted, are being secured. Such data must also be examined and 

 tested by the biologist with his criteria of overfishing. To give such 

 proof as these data provide, is the purpose of the new laborator}'. It is 

 for the digestion and biological analysis of statistics. 



"The Fish and Game Commission has, in California, a system of 

 statistics entirely suitable for such analysis. That now in use is without 

 parallel in any country or state, to the best of our knowledge, and forins 

 a wide and firm basis for true conservation. It is not ba.sed on esti- 

 mates, volunteered information, nor inquiry, but is an actual record of 

 the commercial transactions which take place between fisherman and 

 dealer. This record is from carbon copies of the fisherman's receii)t 

 upon which he receives his money, and is far more probable to he 

 correct, naturally, than any other record obtainable. It ha.s actually 

 provided many of the fresh-fish dealers with a record of their trans- 

 actions for the first time. With all its fault.s — whieli those concerned 

 with its administration are prone to magnify rather tliaa to ignore — 

 so much light has been thrown upon the returns formerly obtained by 

 inquiry and circulated questionnaire, that we regard them as of small 

 value in comparison with what we now get. 



