FORTY-FIRST BIENNIAL REPORT 79 



to make satisfactory cost analyses. Figures on costs of operation are only 

 available to the bureau on a fiscal year basis. Although this causes a break 

 in the middle of the peak of the ])lanting- season it was deemed advisable 

 to make the change by taking an inventory of fish on hand as of July 1st 

 in order to relate the production to cost of operation. Two of the tables 

 given therefore cover the calendar years 1948 and 1949 and a third covers 

 the period January 1 to June 30, 1950. 



REPORT OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE 

 BIOLOGICAL STAFF 



The preceding biennium, that of 1946-48, had witnessed the organi- 

 zation of the biological and pollution control work of the Bureau of Fish 

 Conservation into essentially its present form. During that period the 

 division of the State into eight administrative districts had been com- 

 pleted, with a biologist in charge of all fresh-water fisheries investiga- 

 tions and an assistant hatchery supervisor in charge of all hatchery 

 activities in each district. Man,y major and minor projects which had 

 been put aside because of the severe limitations on both manpower and 

 materials imposed by World AVar II were initiated or reactivated. 



With tlie basic organization completed, the activities of the biological 

 and pollution control staff were accelerated all along the line during the 

 1948-50 Biennium to meet the tremendous problems arising in the post- 

 war period and at the same time to take advantage of the large sums of 

 money made available for capital expenditures through the California 

 Wildlife Conservation Act. These problems arise from two main sources : 

 (1) Fishing pressures on angling waters resulting from a phenomenal rise 

 in the numbers of anglers, and (2) removal of fishing waters for power, 

 irrigation, domestic, and flood control purposes. 



In the postwar period the biological staff has faced a series of new 

 kinds of problems which had to be met with new techniques and methods 

 and in large part by personnel with little actual field experience. It is 

 inevitable that under these circumstances considerable time was first 

 devoted to an acquaintance with conditions by new personnel and to 

 basic fact-finding. Of course, new problems continue to arise and addi- 

 tional fact-finding will be necessary to meet these new problems and 

 also to understand better the old ones, but already it has been possible 

 to make major recommendations regarding both immediate and long- 

 range problems and to start carrying out these recommendations. 



As the members of the biological staff have become acquainted wdth 

 the problems in their respective districts they have been assigned an 

 increasing share of administrative responsibility, so that in most areas 

 they are now in charge of not only investigative work but also such 

 phases of applied fisheries management as fish rescue, stream and lake 

 improvement, and screening of water diversions. 



Obviously, it would be physically impossible for the two to three 

 permanent members of the biological staff in each district to carry out 

 by themselves the necessary field surveys of streams and lakes and other 

 fact-finding phases of the work, to study and analyze and report on their 

 own field investigations and those of other agencies (e.g., the voluminous 

 data presented for comment and recommendations by federal agencies 



