REPORT 



To his Excellency George Stoneman, Governor of California : 



The Commissioners of Fisheries for the State of CaHfornia, appointed 

 imder an Act of the Legislature entitled "An Act to provide for the 

 restoration and preservation of fish in the waters of the State," approved 

 April 2, 1870, respectfully submit their ninth biennial report: 



The Commissioners refer with much pleasure to the fact, that since their 

 last biennial report, public interest has greatly increased, in regard to the 

 fish industry of this commonwealth, and favorable to the adoption of meas- 

 ures and means for increased propagation, and more ample protection of 

 the fish of the State. In nearly all of the States and Territories, their 

 Legislatures have recognized the great importance of fish culture and pro- 

 tection, by the enactment of protective laws and liberal appropriations. 

 Opposition to " Fish Commissions " has been disarmed, and increased 

 energy on part of Commission and State has been demanded. Our citizens 

 call for a larger supply of choice cheap and healthy fish food. This 

 universal demand should be answered in fostering laws and generous 

 appropriations. 



Your Commissioners are pleased to report, that during the last two years — 

 notwithstanding the heavy drain made upon our waters, by hordes of 

 alien fishermen, using criminal methods, and for foreign deportation — the 

 catch of most of the food fislies has been measurably satisfactory. During 

 these, and a part of the preceding two years, it has been the aim of this 

 Commission, to the extent of the power and means allowed it, to stay all 

 vandal waste, and to drive from our waters all classes of fishermen, except 

 those who respect our laws, the present interests of our citizens, and the 

 future prosperity of our fast growing commonwealth. 



The "patrol work" inaugurated by the present Commission (expensive 

 as it has been and must be), was forced upon it by reason of the decrease 

 of salmon and other species of fish, and as a means of protection and 

 restoration. 



SALMON, 



It is a matter of serious regret that our choicest and most valued fish, 

 the Quinnat salmon, is annually decreasing, and the supply for exporta- 

 tion and home consumption is diminishing. Unless salmon that now 

 home in our waters are protected and fostered as a nucleus for increase, 

 our rivers will become as barren of this most desired fish as is the Con- 

 necticut and other eastern rivers. The causes of impoverishment are 

 various, and are well known. In our last biennial report we alluded to 

 them at length, and expressed the opinion that the decrease woidd annu- 

 ally continue until at least some of the causes were removed, and until the 

 efforts of the Commission, by its patrol work for protection and hatchery 

 work for restoration, could be realized; and that restoration by means of 

 replanting could not be appreciable sooner than four or more years after 



