INCREASING OUR PACIFIC COAST FISHERY RESOURCES.* 



By JOHN N. COBB, 



Author of "The Commercial Fisheries of Alaska," "The Commercial Fisheries 



of the Hawaiian Islands," "Pacific Cod Fisheries," "Pacific Salmon 



Fisheries," Etc., Etc. 



THE almost world-wide war which has 

 raged since August, 1914, has devas- 

 tated some of the most fertile agri- 

 cultural lands in Europe, and has destroyed 

 or driven from their accustomed fishing 

 grounds the greater part of the European 

 fishing fleets, and in order to replace the 

 products formerly obtained from them the 

 rest of the world has been laid under con- 

 tribution. Great efforts have been made 

 by our farmers, ranch and sheep men to 

 supply the world's demand for farm prod- 

 ucts and domestic animals, while all eyes 

 are now turned upon our marine and 

 freshwater fishermen to supply the defi- 

 ciency in fishery products, and so far they 

 have responded nobly to the call. 



The first effort of the fishery interests, 

 and in this they have shown excellent 

 judgment, has been to enlarge the demand 

 for products now before the public, such 

 as herring, sardines, sablefish, flounders, 

 clams, crabs, etc., feeling that as the con- 

 sumer is now familiar with these and their 

 proper preparation as food, they will feel 

 more like purchasing them than to buy a 

 product with whose appearance and man- 

 ner of cooking they are totally unfamiliar. 



Usually the development of a demand 

 for a new food product is a slow and 

 expensive process, due to the inherent 

 conservativeness of the housewife in con- 

 nection with food matters, as it usually 

 means that she will have to learn how 

 best to handle it, etc. The war, however, 

 has cut off from our markets so many 

 hitherto popular imported fishery products 

 that the housewife has had to seek for 

 substitutes, and the result has been that 

 the domestic producer of a new fishery 

 product has met with a much more sympa- 

 thetic hearing, especially as most of them 

 have attempted to comply with the con- 

 sumer's demand for authoritative infor- 

 mation as to the best methods of preparing 

 it for table use. 



The slogan, "Eat More Fish," sweeps 

 over the country, largely through the 

 efforts of the TJ. S. Bureau of Fisheries 

 and the food conservation commissions 

 organized since the United States entered 

 the war, and in this connection an odd 



state of affairs at present exists. An 

 immense army is now in cantonments in 

 order to be properly trained, while the 

 navy has been recruited to its full war 

 strength. In order to feed these men the 

 authorities are buying enormous quanti- 

 ties of provisions, but while the civilian 

 branches are advising the people at home 

 to eat more fish and thus reduce the 

 quantity of meat consumed in order to 

 have more for export to our allies, the 

 fighting branches continue to feed the 

 men largely on meat, fish forming but a 

 comparatively small part of the regular 

 ration in both services. While an almost 

 exclusively meat diet may be necessary on 

 the fighting front, it surely can not be so 

 while the men are at the training camps 

 in this country, and many letters from 

 these men indicate that they would wel- 

 come more of a fish diet than is at present 

 provided. 



There are a great many species of fishes 

 to be found on this coast, and of this num- 

 ber nearly all are edible. Some are 

 entirely too small, or have so little avail- 

 able flesh on their bodies, ever to be of 

 value from a commercial standpoint, while 

 a very few have flesh of too insipid a flavor 

 to please the consumer. Of the remainder 

 only a comparatively small number ever 

 find their way to our markets, due to the 

 fact that the fishermen naturally prefer 

 to ship those they are sure of finding a 

 market for, as none of them have the capi- 

 tal or time to devote to persuading the 

 consuming public to buy a hitherto un- 

 known species. No attempt has been made 

 here to list all species available, the more 

 prominent alone having been selected in 

 order to keep the article within reasonable 

 bounds. 



FISHES 



HERRING This is the commonest food 

 fish found in the waters of the world, and 

 there is no more wholesome fish for rich 

 or poor. This species belongs to a class 

 of fish in which the fat is stored in the 

 muscles, under the skin, and in the ab- 

 dominal cavity, and not, as with the cod, 

 haddock, and most white fishes, laid up 



*This paper is an amplification of one read before the annual meeting of the 

 Pacific Fisheries Society held in Seattle, Wash., on June 10-12, 1914, and entitled 

 "Neglected Pacific Fishery Resources." It has been prepared in its present form at 

 the request of the Committee on Zoological Investigation of the California Scientific 

 Research Conference. 



