66 REPORT OF THE FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



proximity to tlie canneries and the fish wharves, making it possible to follow easily 

 the progress of the fishery. The i)lans adopted are intended to give good working 

 room for a statistical and biological study of the fisheries for the purpose of conser- 

 vation and adequate utilizatidn and at the same time to allow an exhibit to those 

 interested in the purposes of the work and its relation to the fisheries. 



That the primarj' purposes of the investigations of the California Fish and Game 

 Commission are conservation and adequate utilization has been stated many times. 

 But such purposes have been I'epeatedly avowed by investigators, whose programs 

 when adopted have betrayed a primary interest in general natural history, and have 

 shown little relationship to the problems to be solved. The scientific program of the 

 Commission has, however, been planned very specifically to meet the problems which 

 are involved in governmental control of the fisheries, and are adapted to meet the 

 responsibilities of the state as legal guardian of those natural resources. The ma- 

 chinery for the execution of this program is, in fact, already operating in part, and 

 its purjwses are stated very clearly in the laws of the state as duties of the Com- 

 mission. 



The law then goes on to make pi'ovisions for the statistical system now in use as 

 one of the bases for the scientific work. This system is to the best of our knowledge 

 one without parallel in any country, and it has already proved itself superior to any 

 statistical system we are acquainted with. It registers the catch of every boat, 

 leaving its record for subsequent study by scientists in conjunction with other 

 records by which changes in apparatus and economic conditions may be discounted, 

 in order that there may be obtained a measure of the fluctuations in abundance of 

 fish from year to year. It will be inevitable, in the future, that any scientific 

 program carried on by the possessors of such complete records as, by this law, we 

 shall eventually have, will be a program designed to discover the meaning of euch 

 records in terms of abundance and scarcity of fish. That there are faults in the 

 system must be granted, but the faults are infinitesimal compared to those of statis- 

 tical systems depending upon estimates and hearsay. The laboratory will provide 

 for the filing and the study of these records. 



But this stiitistical work is only a part of the program, and in formulating both 

 this and the biological, which is in a way the more important, the Commission has 

 had before it the several programs adopted during the last two decades in other 

 countries, notably in those bordering the North Sea and our North Pacific, and from 

 these programs and their results it has been possible to decide within somewhat 

 narrow limits what knowledge is necessary to competently legislate for our fisheries. 

 The failures and successes of others during the recent great advances in fishery 

 science have profited us. And in this fact is seen the reason why the program for 

 the proposed laboratory will be a really vital one, dealing with questions tvhich 

 actually face the legisl<itor and the men interested eommercialhj. It will lack the 

 vagueness of random natural history investigations, and it will avoid the limitation 

 in value of technological research. In the future we may justifiably hope that the 

 investigations carried on in the new laboratory will further define and clarify the 

 many problems to be met with. 



And in thus reviewing the work in other fields perhaps the most obvious fact has 

 been the absolute necessity of access to the vast store of specimens and data to be 

 furnished by the commercial fisheries. No agency could afford to duplicate this store, 

 despite its vital importance to any investigations. And this has, in fact, determined 

 the location of the laboratory and dominated in the construction of its plans. An- 

 other obivous conclusion to be drawn from the work of others has been the necessity 

 of obtaining popular support by exhibiting to those interested the purposes of the 

 work, and its achievements, as well as by showing graphically the necessity for it. 

 Because of this there has been planned an exhibit room. 



The great scientific value of this work may not be immediately obvious to the 

 scientist who is interested in some of the more basic laws of biology. It may appear 

 too practical. Yet this definition of aim, and practical trend actually heightens the 

 value of the work from the standpoint of general science. The problems faced by 

 the legislator are. in striking degree, the same as those in whi<?h the student of 

 geographical distribution, and of evolution is or should be interested, and the material 

 offered by the commercial fisheries far exceeds in extent that which can be obtained 

 through other sources. The degree of isolation of different races and the extent to 

 which it leaves its traces on the morphology or habits of the species is of great im- 

 portance to one pondering the value of protection to a species overfished in a par- 

 ticular locality, just as it is to the man interested in the formation of races and 



