38 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 



SHRIMPS. 



During the session of the Legislature of 1903, i)ersistent efforts were 

 again made by interested parties, acting on behalf of the Chinese shrimp 

 companies, to amend the present shrimp law, enacted during the session 

 of 1901, whereby a close season of four months (May, June, July, and 

 August) was established. Judging from the determined attacks made 

 at that time to reduce the open season, and from the number of petitions 

 that have since come to this office, as well as from the various induce- 

 ments held out to our deputies to ignore the provisions of the present 

 law and allow the Chinese shrimp fishermen to follow their destructive 

 methods, we feel that the report on the operations of shrimp fishermen, 

 published in the Fish Commissioners' Report of 1899-1900, should be 

 again printed, in order that this matter may be clearly understood. 

 This report was made by N. B. Scofield, of Stanford University, who 

 was indorsed and recommended to the Board of Fish Commissioners by 

 Dr. David Starr Jordan. Mr. Scofield was regularly in our employ and 

 carried on his investigations for a period of several months. The report 

 is as follows: 



Tlie Chinese shrimp boat is of Cliinese make and pattern, anil is 40 feet long by 10 

 feet on the beam; it carries a 30-foot mast, which bears a typical Chinese sail. The 

 crew is invariably made up of five men. 



The fishing is done by means of bag nets made in China expressly for the shrimp 

 tishing. Each net is about 20 feet across its mouth, and narrows quickly into a narrow 

 bag about 40 feet long. The end of the bag is open, so that the contents of the net can 

 be easily let out by untying a string which holds the opening closed. Near the mouth 

 of the net the mesh is large (about 2-inch), but it gradually grows smaller till in the 

 last half of the bag the mesh is ^ inch. 



Each boat operates from twenty to thirty nets, which are set on the bottom with 

 their mouths against the current. Some position is selected in the channel where the 

 current is strong, and here a line is stretched across the current — lying on the bottom 

 and anchored at either end and occasionally in the middle — the position of the anchors 

 .marked by buoys. The nets are set along this line, usually at low tide, and are taken 

 up again at the next high tide; depending on the current to drift tlic shrimps into the 

 nets. 



By a special contrivance the nets can be set and taken up without the anchors by 

 which they are held in place. 



In drawing in the nets the fishermen pull up one end of the line to which the nets 

 are attached and pass it over a pulley at the bow of the boat and reel it in by a windlass 

 in the stern. As each net comes up to the surface at the bow of the boat, it is unfastened 

 from the line and carried around to the side of the boat, where it is pulled up by hand 

 and its contents dumped into the boat. The nets are taken ashore and dried, and at 

 the next low tide a second set of nets is taken out, each boat having two sets. 



The number of shrimps caught by each boat varies greatly. At some time they 

 catch only a couple of baskets, which weigh about 90 pounds each; at other times, 

 when everything is favorable, they catch as high as eighty baskets. These numbers 

 include everything caught. 



The shrimps when brought into tlii' camp are first boiled in large open vats. Salt 

 water is used for the boiling, coarse salt being added in large quantities. After boiling 

 about thirtj' minutes they are spread out on the ground to dry. After they are suffi- 

 ciently dried they are swept together and rolled thoroughly with heavy cleated rollers. 



