THIRTY-SIXTH BIENNIAL REPORT 43 



more superficially. The major research program, therefore, is con- 

 cerned with the four most important species. Less intensive studies 

 are conducted covering a larger number of our fisheries. Two activities, 

 other than biological research, are of major importance and each of 

 these as well as each of the four studies mentioned above has for some 

 years been operating under the direction of a staff member, who has 

 been assigned the responsibility for carrying out the program as 

 planned.^ These assignments are: sardines, mackerel, tuna, flatfish, 

 compilation of statistics, and marine sport catch. Other important 

 activities are a survey of the Central Valley Water Project, a survey 

 of the abalone fishery, and the oyster culture studies. 



RESEARCH VESSEL 



We have long felt the need of a research vessel especially designed 

 for all kinds of fishing and the operation of all types of collecting gear. 

 The launching on December 17, 1938, of such a vessel was a highliglil 

 of the past biennium. The new vessel, named the ''N. B. Sco field" 

 after the ''father of the Bureau of Marine Fisheries," is 100 feet, 6 

 inches in length, carries a seven-man crew with bunk space for a research 

 staff, and is constructed so as to accommodate such widely divergent 

 activities as otter board trawling and tuna live-bait fishing. In addition 

 to laboratory space both forward and aft, the hold is provided with the 

 latest in refrigeration equipment so that spoilage problems in chilling 

 and storage may be studied. Throughout, the vessel carries the best in 

 equipment and our hopes for her accomplishment are now being justified 

 by the work she has been doing both locally and on distant fishing 

 banks. Her 1940 schedule included a ten-Aveeks' tuna fishing trip to 

 off-shore banks as far south as the Galapagos Islands on the equator. 



SARDINE 



The sardine fishery, our leading fisheries industry, has received 

 major attention since the laboratory was established. Most of the pre- 

 liminary work has been accomplished so that the problem now is to 

 measure population changes, especially the contributions made by 

 each year-class entering the fishery and the effect of each annual catch 

 upon the diminished supply. 



Tagging bes'un four years ago has continued with the cooperation 

 of the Dominion of Canada and the States of Oregon and Washington. 

 Tag returns have confirmed our conclusions about migrations but, of 

 much greater significance, the percentage of returns offers another 

 method of measuring fishing intensity and population decline. 



One portion of the research program featured during the last two 

 years is an effort to estimate the strength of the next entering age-class 

 by direct observation of the schools of small sardines. Each fall a 

 survey is conducted to estimate the survivors from the previous spi-ing 

 spaA\Tiing. This is supplemented by a general bait survey along the 

 coast of southern California, the region of heaviest spawning of the 

 sardine. 



Our sardine research progi-am necessarily has been modified some- 

 what in order to cooperate with the sardine investigations launched in 

 1938 by the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service, formerly the United 

 States Bureau of Fisheries. 



