REPORT OF THE PISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



81 



We are recording the results of our work in the form of permanent 

 notes, which are filed in such form that they will become the property 

 of the state and can be referred to readily and be used by anyone who 

 may wish to continue the work. Much valuable information has been 

 lost in the past because it was not filed. We plan, as soon as we have 

 sufficient data on any one fishery, to put the information in the form 

 of reports accompanied by illustrations, so that it can be published. 

 We have published reports on the tuna, shad and paranzella fisheries 

 and are prepared to publish reports on the salmon, sardine, striped bass, 

 rock cod, crab, catfish and abalone fisheries. 



Fig. 51. Rock cod fishermen at Fishermen's Wharf, San Francisco. Photographs by A. M. 



Fairfield. 



A law enacted by the last legislature requires dealers and handlers 

 of fish to make an accurate monthly statement of the quantity and 

 varieties of fish handled and where they were caught. We have con- 

 sidered it of the greatest importance that this law be enforced and that 

 the reports be complete and accurate. To that end a list of all the 

 dealers of the state required to make this report was compiled and 

 printed blanks issued to each. The law went into effect in August, 

 1915, and we have been able to get a very complete and accurate record 

 of the fish handled since the 1st of October, 1915. This record, if kept 

 up, will show the decline or rise of any fishery and the season of each 

 variety of fish. This, supplemented by the number of boats, men, nets 

 and the intensity of the fishing, which we are obtaining, will give us 

 the basis upon which all conservation measures must rest. We are 

 publishing the statistics as we gather them in the quarterly bulletin, 

 California Fish and Game, along with other contributions on subjects 

 of interest concerning the fisheries. 



We have investigated, as far as we could, the fi^h marketing problems ; 

 the sanitary or unsanitary handling of fish by fishermen, by markets 

 and in shipment; the cold storaging of salmon, the utilization of fish 

 waste for fertilizer or for chicken feed. We have, since the first of the 



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