56 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 



this work, and it is their opinion that there should be established a close 

 season for at least two years. 



We find that the greatest damage to the crawfish industry is done 

 by the Japanese fishermen, who take them with a gill net, which is 

 not over three feet in depth, but about one hundred feet in length. 

 These fishermen will put ten or twelve of their nets around a bed of 

 kelp, where the crawfish feed; if the fish are on the inside, they can not 

 get out, and if they attempt to go after food, they are caught, both large 

 and small. When the nets are brought to the surface the fish of legal 

 size are taken into the boats; the smaller ones are usually so badly 

 enmeshed that they can not be removed without maiming or crippling 

 them so badly that they die. The white fishermen use traps made of 

 laths; if the small ones are caught in them, they are not injured in the 

 slightest, and are easily liberated. 



In our opinion a close season of two years is at this time absolutely 

 necessary to save these valuable shell fish from extermination. 



The number of legal-sized fish now caught hardly justifies the cost of 

 operating traps. We believe that at the end of two years, with a 

 shorter open season of probably three months, and prohibiting their 

 capture by nets, the crawfish industry can be saved to this State. 



ABALONES. 



The present abalone law is apparently meeting with general approval. 

 A slight change was made at the session of the Legislature in 1905 by 

 reducing the size at which the black abalones (Haliotis californica) 

 could be taken, from 15 to 20 inches around the outer edge of the 

 shell. This amendment to the former law has met with universal 

 approval in those counties of the State along whose shores the abalone 

 is found, and the citizens generally are united in favor of retaining the 

 present law. The only suggestion that has come to us is in reference 

 to preventing the use of diving apparatus to effect their capture. The 

 Japanese, it is claimed, are making great inroads on the supply by taking 

 them by that means. As the catch is shipped out of this State and is 

 handled much in the same manner that the Chinese did the shrimps, 

 we believe that an amendment forbidding the use of diving apparatus 

 of any sort would be a wise precaution. The Japanese divers operating 

 beneath the surface can take the meat from the undersized shells, bring- 

 ing up those only that meet legal requirements. This renders it prac- 

 tically impossible to secure sufficient evidence to sustain a conviction 

 for that offense. A number of arrests were made and convictions 

 secured for the possession of small shells. We would therefore respect- 

 fully recommend that the statute be so amended that the use of diving 

 apparatus be prohibited. 



