CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 375 



THE FRESHWATER COMMERCIAL FISHERIES OF 



CALIFORNIA* 



By Richard S. Croker 



There was a time when the river fisheries of California surpassed 

 those of the ocean, bnt that was many years ago. Saltwater fishing 

 methods have been improved so as to take greater toll of the schools of 

 ocean fish, canneries have been established and enlarged, and the rapid 

 growth of coastal cities has opened up larger markets, so that now 

 the ocean catch far exceeds the take of the freshwater. Of the hun- 

 dreds of millions of pounds of fish caught every year in California, less 

 than five million are taken from inland waters. Nevertheless, many 

 fishermen derive their livelihood from the rivers and lakes of the 

 central part of the State. 



The most important fishes taken in the rivers of California are 

 anadromous species, that is, fish that spend the greater part of their 

 lives in saltwater but enter the rivers for spawning purposes and 

 occasionally to feed. These are the king and silver salmon, the striped 

 bass and the shad. The extensive gill net fishery for these species is 

 well known and as it has been covered in previous publications of the 

 California Division of Fish and Game, it will not be taken up in the 

 present article. Two other anadromous fishes, the sturgeon and the 

 steelhead, were formerly taken commercially. The capture of the 

 former was prohibited in 1917 to preserve it from extinction, and the 

 latter, due to depletion, has been removed from the commercial list. 



It is with the true freshwater fishes that we are concerned at 

 present. There are eight species of these that are caught commercially 

 in California. All of them descend at times into the brackish waters of 

 bays and estuaries, but they are essentially freshwater species. Five 

 of them are native to central California waters. These are the 

 split-tail (Pagomchthys macrolepidotus) , the Sacramento pike {Ptycho- 

 cheilus grancUs), and two species known as hardheads (OrtJiodon 

 microlepidotus and MylopJiarodon conocephalus) , and the western 

 sucker (Cat ostomus occidentalis) . The other three species were intro- 

 duced into our waters by the California Fish Commission during the 

 latter part of the last century. The carp {Cyprinus carpio) came from 

 Asia by way of Europe and the eastern United States. The square-tail 

 catfish (Ameirus nelidosus) and the fork-tail catfish (A. catus) came 

 from the Mississippi Basin. The carp, split-tail, hardheads, and Sacra- 

 mento pike are all members of the carp or minnow family, Cyprinidae.f 



In 1933, the recorded commercial catch of the eight freshwater 

 species totaled about 580,000 pounds. The value of these fish to the 

 fishermen was approximately $28,000. The catfish, principally the fork- 



*Contribution No. 139 from the California State Fisheries Laboratory, May, 1934. 



t The fork-tail catfish is sometimes called "blue catfish," and the square-tail 

 IS sometimes referred to as "yellow catfish." The Sacramento pike is occasionally 

 called "squawfish," and the hardhead is sometimes known as "blackfish," especially 

 in Clear Lake. The names used in the text are those authorizd by the California 

 Division of Fish and Game. 



