TWENTY-SEVENTH BIENNIAL REPORT. 



70 



No prosecutions were made partly due to the laek of definite evidence 

 and partly due to some misunderstanding on the part of the canners 

 as to whether over-supplies of fish due to accident on the boats or to the 

 machinery of the cannery were to be counted in determining the per- 

 centage. 



It is also evident that some were receiving more fish from the fisher- 

 men than appeared on the records but this could not be provt-n. As 

 there was considerable dissatisfaction among some caniiers and fisher- 

 men in regard to methods of arriving at the weight of the fish delivered 

 at the canneries we presented the case to the State Superintendent of 

 Weights and Measures. He called a meeting of the canners at 

 Monterey during the present summer at which it was determined tliat 

 the box or measure used in hoisting the sardines from the boat should 



Fig. 25. Purse seine boats at San Pedro Harbor. An investisation of this type of 

 fishing lias been in progress to determine whetlier or not it be dangeioiis to the 

 fisheries. 



be either of wood or metal and that the ('ai)aeity of oacii be accurately 

 determined l)y the state sealer. Also that each canner under the law is 

 a public weigher and must take out a license and give a bond and issue 

 certificates of weight under a state seal. As the Superintendent of 

 Weights and Measures has the authority to revoke this license, as well 

 as forfeit the $1,000 bond for falsification of the weights, it is believ.'d 

 that by this cooperation of the two state departments the evils wiiieh 

 have existed will be eliminated and it will be possible for us to enforce 

 strictly the limit of sardines which may be discarded for reduetioii 

 purposes. This program is also to be carried out in Southei-ii California. 

 By February, 1922, ten companies in the San Pedro distriet were 

 actively engaged in packing sardines and the investigation which 

 followed at the end of the month indicated that seven plants hiid 

 exceeded the 25 per cent limit. Tn ncnrilnnce with the provisions of t!u' 



