THIRTY-SECOND BIENNIAL REPORT 13 



The volunteer deputies have held annual state-wide conventions 

 without cost to the State, the entire expense being borne by these 

 workers. 



FISH CULTURE 



The Bureau of Fish Culture has operated 25 hatcheries, two tank 

 stations, 30 egg-takino' stations and 78 brood and aging ponds from 

 which nearly 68,000,000 trout and over 9,000,000 salmon have been 

 planted during the biennium. The problem of egg supply is receiving 

 a great deal of attention. Sixty-two million eggs were collected from 

 wild fish in the State, 22,000,000 were secured from our own brood 

 ponds and nearly 17,000,000 were purchased. There is great danger of 

 infecting our hatcheries and streams with fish diseases from imported 

 eggs, so tlie desirability of developing a source of supply from within 

 the State and entirely under the control of the Commission is apparent. 



The program of raising fish to larger sizes has been continued, and 

 during the biennium 390,000 trout ranging from 5 to 9 inches in length 

 were planted from our rearing ponds. 



Planting methods are being carefully studied in order to make this 

 work more effective. As noted above, this is a joint responsibility 

 between the Bureau of Patrol and the Bureau of Fish Culture, and a 

 field representative of the latter bureau has been designated to coordi- 

 nate the work in the two divisions. To further insure the best possible 

 distribution of fish, allotments of fish will not be made without the 

 approval of the captain of wardens of the district concerned. 



In the early spring of 1932, small mouth bass ponds were con- 

 structed near Friant. Brood fish were secured through the efforts of 

 sportsmen and our own representatives, but the ponds were completed 

 too late to secure a crop of these fish this year. To thoroughly test 

 out the new bonds, several thousand bass fingerlings from wild fish 

 were seined and transferred to the Friant ponds. Daphnia ponds to 

 provide food for the smaller bass have been developed, and other ponds 

 designed to raise quantities of small fish for food for the larger bass 

 have been in successful operation. The value of these experimental 

 ponds will be determined in the sj)ring of 1933 when the mature fish 

 spawn. The propagation of bass is a much more complicated problem 

 than is the case with trout. The eggs can not be taken artificially, 

 and the bass require live food exclusively. 



A cooperative trout investigation has been undertaken by the U. S. 

 Bureau of Fisheries and the Fish and Game Commission to determine 

 a proper State policy and program for the hatching, rearing, dis- 

 tribution and protection of the trout of our State. A brief outline of 

 this work follows the report of the Bureau of Fish Culture. 



COMMERCIAL FISHERIES 



In contrast with our last report which recorded an increase of 62 

 per cent in the commercial catch of fish, we must now record a decrease 

 of 21 per cent in the amount of fish and shellfish landed during the 

 past biennium. The sardine landings decreased from 1,072,000,000 

 pounds in the previous period to 795,301,000 pounds during the past 

 two years. This is due to market conditions rather than a decrease 

 in abundance, but continued studies were carried on to determine the 



