24 FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 



The light catch of 1945-46, coupled with the use of greater than usual 

 proportion of the fish for canning, resulted in the lightest production of 

 sardine meal and oil since 1937-38. With all imports of meal and oil at a 

 standstill, the demand for these products is far greater than the supply. 

 The number of reduction plants operating under permit increased from 

 75 at the close of the last biennium to 85 during the 1945-46 season. The 

 tonnage received under permit for straight reduction amounted to an 

 average of 1,622 tons per plant during the 1945-46 season. This was only 

 35 percent of the allowable tonnage. During the 1944-45 season 71 per- 

 cent of the allotted tonnage was used in reduction plants. 



The wholesale value of processed sardines during the calendar year 

 1945 was $29,326,000. Of this amount, canned sardines accounted for 

 $15,256,000. Sardine oil was valued at $7,992,000 and meal was worth 

 $6,078,000. 



Sardine canneries and reduction plants are located on San Francisco 

 Bay, at Monterey and Moss Landing, and at Los Angeles-Long Beach 

 Harbor. Small amounts of meal and oil are also produced at San Diego. 

 (See Table VI, appendix, page 104.) 



Sardine Investigations : Due to lack of personnel and equipment, 

 no new investigations were inaugurated in the biennium. The routine 

 sampling of the catch was carried on so that there need be no break in our 

 measures of the size of fish in the catch. The cooperative study of age 

 composition of the sardine was continued with the U. S. Fish and Wild- 

 life Service. Another cooperative investigation carried on with this 

 organization, and brought to completion in the biennium, comprised a 

 detailed analysis of the catches of individual sardine boats over a ten-year 

 period. The results have been published in Fish Bulletin No. 62. 



No sardines were tagged, but tag recoveries from former releases 

 continued. In the 1944-45 season two tags were returned in the San Fran- 

 cisco fishery which had been released in British Columbia waters by 

 Canadian workers, and fourteen tags from tagging lots put out off the 

 mouth of the Columbia River by the Oregon Fish Commission were 

 recovered at San Francisco and Monterey. In addition, 228 California 

 tags were re-taken ; 20 in the British Columbia fishery, and 208 in the 

 California fisheries. These represented releases made in California and 

 Mexican waters. During the 1945-46 season three Oregon tags were 

 recovered in the Monterey fishery. Of the California releases, eight were 

 retaken in British Columbia, and 34 in the California fisheries. 



Detailed studies were made of the tags returned over eight seasons, 

 and the results were published in Fish Bulletin No. 61. These indicate a 

 general intermingling of the sardine population between British Colum- 

 bia and central Lower California. Because of this constant movement 

 from area to area, use of tag returns to measure the size of the population 

 did not prove successful. The rate of decline in the population from year 

 to year was measured, however, both by tag returns and by age determina- 

 tions. These were in satisfactory agreement, and for the next biennium 

 age determinations only will be used for these studies since they require 

 much less time and equipment. It is hoped that it will thus be possible 

 to place more effort on studies of oceanographic conditions and their rela- 

 tion to spawning success and availability of sardines on the fishing 

 grounds. 



