138 



CALIFORNIA PISII AND GAME 



ELECTRICAL SHOCKING DEVICE TRIED EXPERIMENTALLY ON FISHING BOAT 



An electrical device which the inventor hopes will be an aid to 

 fishennen in controlling the movements of sardines as tiie net is being 

 laid around them was given a ])r('liiiiinaiy trial on the purse seine 

 boat Olympic during the latter part of the .1933-34 season. The move- 

 ments of fish were to be controlled by shocking them by means of elec- 

 trodes spaced at inter- 

 vals around the net, 

 receiving charges from 

 a large generator on 

 the boat. This appara- 

 tus did not prove very 

 successful during the 

 trial period. It is 

 highly improbable that 

 the electrical device 

 could replace the 

 simple but effective 

 submarine light that 

 can be lowered to any 

 depth and flashed in- 

 termittently as a scare 

 to keep the fish back in 

 the bag of the net 

 while the bottom is be- 

 ing pursed. A scare 

 that the fish can see, 

 such as the flashing 

 light, is more effective 

 than something which 

 is unseen. 



EXPANSION OF FISHING 



GROUNDS IN TIIE 



MONTEREY 



REGION 



Until the season of 

 1924-25, sardine fish- 

 ing activities in the 

 ]\Ionterey region were 

 conducted in waters 

 adjacent to Monterey. 

 Beginning with the 

 1924-25 season, the 

 seining area extended 

 gradually northward until in 1928-29 the boats fished as far as Half- 

 moon Bay, a distance of some 70 miles northward of Monterey. With 

 the advent of a large mnnber of purse seine boats into the Monterey 

 sardine fishery in the season of 1929-30, the area fished was extended 

 still farther northward to Point Reyes, a distance of about 115 miles 

 from Monterey. This fishing area remained constant until the 1933-34 



Pig. 40. Long bag dip net such as is used by purse 

 seine boats for unloading catch from net into hold of 

 boat. Note that the end of the bag is closed and fas- 

 tened to hoisting rope, by means of which the net is 

 emptied. Photo by J. B. Phillips, February, 1932. 



