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larger boats, and a steady increase in plant capacity to keep pace with 

 the enlarged shipments to foreign countries. Diiring the prosperity 

 period of 1922 to 1930, the catch rose steadily to more than five times 

 what it had been previously. One break appeared in this steady upward 

 trend. During the season 1924-25, the unusually large catch resulted 

 from adverse court decisions, so that for several months the laws against 

 unlimited reduction of sardines were not operative and extra boat 

 catches were reduced to fish meal and oil to take advantage of the good 

 prices for by-products then prevailing. 



Fig. 115. Graphic representation of California sardine catches per thou- 

 sand tons from 1916 to 1934. 



The world-wide economic slump after 1929 reduced the sales to 

 Asiatic and European countries so that the total catch of sardines 

 dropped with the slump in the purchasing power of foreign countries. 

 The rates of foreign exchange almost prohibited the purchase of goods 

 in this country. The upward swing in the sardine catch for the last 

 two seasons is the direct result of a business recovery policy of the 

 Division of Fish and Game, by which permits were issued for the 

 reduction of sardines into salable fish oil in order that fishermen and 

 cannery workers might find employment and be rescued from the 

 county charity rolls. It is just as absurd to assume that the recent 

 increased catch is due to an increasing supply of sardines, as to claim 

 that the two slumps in catch for the depression years of 1921 and 1930 

 were caused by a sudden scarcity of sardines in the ocean. 



TABLE 1 

 California Sardine Catch by Fishing Seasons 



