REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 



9 



eral. The people of that county will alone be the sufferers, since the 

 fisheries there supply only the local demand. 



For some reason the run of salmon in the Sacramento River in 1895 

 was affected (presumably from high temperature or a rise of water) so 

 that, instead of being heaviest during the month of August, it was only 

 well started when the season closed. This condition obtained in 1896, 

 but in a more marked degree. The early or spring run of fish was also 

 affected by some cause. The salmon appeared in considerable numbers 

 in the river as early as January, and continued to come through February 

 and March, in consequence of which the April run of fish did not show 

 the decided increase of former years, though there was an increase in 

 the total take for the first six months. 



Owing to the varied run, the canneries did not pack as many 

 SALMON salmon, as the following table will show. The figures for the 

 CANNED, years previous to 1895, in all of the tables, were taken from 



the biennial report of the California Fish Commission for 

 the years 1893-94: 



Salmon Pack of the Sacramento River. 



It would be advantageous for the State to cause an investigation by 

 trained scientists of the habits of the young salmon after reaching the 

 river from the small creeks on their way to the sea. Such an investi- 

 gation, combined with intelligent observations upon the fish-food to be 

 found in our larger interior waters, might lead to information that would 

 be of material help in the restoration of salmon and the development of 

 other valuable food-fisheries. It would seem advisable, therefore, that 

 the Legislature should make a small appropriation for such scientific 

 investigation, placing the appropriation in the hands of the Board, or of 

 Dr. David Starr -Jordan, of Stanford University, who, as is well known, 

 stands high as an authority on the habits of fishes. 



The number of seals near the Seal Rocks, lying off Point Lobos, 

 SEALS. City and County of San Francisco, has so greatly increased 



under the protection afforded them by an Act of Con- 

 gress relating to the control and care of the rocks that they very 

 seriously interfere with the fishermen who carry on their vocation in 

 the Bay of San Francisco and its tributary waters. Many schools of 

 fish seeking entrance to spawning-beds are scattered by these seals. 



