TITIRTY-FOURTTI BIENNIAL REPORT 40 



get up the river to spawn has been declining even more rapidly than 

 the catch. The decline in the take of eggs at the three spawn-taking 

 stations of the T. S. Bureau of Fisheries on the Sacramento is proof 

 that the number of salmon which escape up the river has been reduced 

 to a small fraction of that of only a few years ago. The salmon 

 hatcheries on the Sacramento are unable to get enough eggs to warrant 

 their operation. This lack of eggs and the inability of the State to 

 give the salmon ]^rotection sufficient to give them a supply of eggs for 

 the hatcheries lias caused the U. S. Bureau to seriously consider 

 abandoning its .salmon culture operations on the river. 



What is needed is shorter trolling seasons in the ocean districts, 

 and the closed seasons should be imjxwed with the ob.ject of reducing 

 the catch of salmon, especialh" during the time they are migrating up 

 the coast and entering the river to spawn. 



The Sacramento River season closes on September 17th, at which 

 time the larger fall run is at its height, thus permitting approximately 

 one-third of those entering the bay to pass up the river during the 

 closed time. 



We have attempted to get a closed season in the Monterey Bay 

 ocean districts and in tlie district off San Francisco so as to protect a 

 substantial part of this same fall run as it ]iasses up tlie coast, first 

 through ^Monterey r>ay and later tlirough the district outside the 

 Golden Gate. The objf'ct is to give protection to the latter ]^art of 

 tliis run, first in .Muntcivy l>ay. next in tlie district north of Santa 

 Cfuz and off' San i^'rancisco and last in tlie lower river districts. To 

 do this the seascm must close early enough in each district to give real 

 protection. The seasons we have now do not give this protection except 

 in the river districts and too large a ])ortion of the run is caught before 

 tlie salmon can get in the river. What is needed is an earlier closing 

 of the outside seasons. 



REPORT OF THE CALIFORNIA STATE FISHERIES LABORATORY 



By W. L. SCOFIELD 



The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries is applying conservation 

 practice to our fisheries in an attempt to harvest the largest possible 

 annual crop consistent with sustained yield, and the research program 

 is designed to supply the information necessary- before such a policy 

 can be carried out. The research work has as its goal the determina- 

 tion, for each of our more important fisheries, the point at which over- 

 utilization occurs so that a maximum continuous yield may be estab- 

 lished for each fishery. Management of a fishery toward this end 

 usually involves regulation and the research program includes the sup- 

 plying of information to serve in judging the kind of regulation that 

 will be effective. This necessitates examining the efficiency of the legal 

 restrictions already established. The research work for each fishery 

 is therefore designed to learn the life history and habits of the species 

 as a background for regulation, but the important consideration is a 

 study of possible changes in supply of fish and the causes of such 

 variations. 



4 — 39139 



