158 CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 



The maximum length for the Oregon bay smelt was 299 mm. and the 

 oldest specimens were in their seventli or eighth year. The lai-gest 

 specimen of the southern California subspecies was 169 mm. and the 

 oldest specimen in its seventh or eighth year. The rate of growth of 

 A. a. littoralis is much slower than of A. a. oregowia and yet the maxi- 

 mum age is probably the same for both subspecies. 



About 5 per cent of the Oregon bay smelt reach maturity in their 

 second year and the remainder in their third, but at least two-thirds of 

 A. a. littoralis mature in their second year and the remainder in their 

 third. A. a. oregonia spawns in Coos Bay, Oregon, in May, June and 

 early July. A. a. littoralis spawns in Anaheim Bay and San Diego 

 Bay in April, May and June and possibly as late as July. Little mate- 

 rial was available for a study of A. a. affinis, but its life history appar- 

 ently occupies an intermediate position between A. a. oregonia and 

 A. a. littoralis. 



A. a. oregonia migrates during the spring to the upper part of 

 Coos Bay, where spawning takes place. In the late summer this bay 

 smelt occurs only in the lower part of the bay. Between October and 

 February it is not taken in Coos Bay by commercial fishermen, who say 

 these fish have entered the ocean. — Frances N. Clark, California, State 

 Fisheries Laboratory, Fehruarij 21, 1934. 



NOTES ON THE SARDINE FISHERY 



The sardine season which closed at Monterey and northern 

 California on February 15 and which will close at San Pedro and 

 southern California on April 1 will be recorded as the most successful 

 in the history of the industry so far as the size of the catch is con- 

 cerned. When the figures are all in, the catch for the season, includ- 

 ing the floating plants operating outside the 3-mile limit beyond the 

 control of the State, will exceed 350,000 tons. This amount exceeds 

 by more than 25,000 tons the previous greatest season of 1929-1930. 

 Roughly, 125,000 tons of the sardines taken this present season were 

 used for canning, while 225,000 tons were used in reduction plants. 

 The number of cases of sardines packed this season was less than 

 half that of the big season of four years ago. The reason for the 

 greatly increased catch was the liberal granting of reduction permits 

 by the Fish and Game Commission. 



Similar permits were granted to sardine plants during the pre- 

 vious season to relieve actual distress among the fishermen and to 

 enable the sardine plants to operate in the face of the great slum]) 

 in foreign demand for California canned sardines. As the prices 

 for the reduction products, oil and meal, were also very low, the 

 fishermen received only $4 per ton for their fish. Quite a number 

 of the plants did not open and most of the plants which operated 

 did not exhaust the amount of their permits. The catch was there- 

 fore light and the season was an unprofitable one, especially for the 

 fishermen. 



The present season opened with much better prospects. There 

 was a better market for canned sardines and the prices for sardine 

 oil and meal had advanced nearly 50 per cent over the previous 

 season. After considerable bickering and a strike of a month on the 



