92 



REPORT OF THE FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



Shrimp. 

 Shrimp fishing by meaus of Chinese nets was resumed in 1915 in 

 District No. 13, set off for the shrimp fishermen in the south end of 

 San Francisco Bay. The use of Chinese shrimp nets was prohibited by 

 law in 1911 at which time the annual catch of shrimp was near ten 

 million pounds. Of this amount a little less than one million pounds 

 was used in the markets of the state, the remaining 90 per cent being 

 dried and shipped to China. In the four years following the enactment 

 of this law no other successful method of catching shrimp was devised 

 and most of the time shrimps were not to be found in the markets. In 

 redividing the state into fish and game districts it was possible to set 

 aside the south end of San Francisco Bay for the use of the Chinese 



Fig. 56. Chinese shrimp fishing junk on San Francisco Bay. Photograph by H. B. Nidever. 



nets, where it had been shown that the number of young edible fish 

 destroyed by them Avas not large in comparison with the former destruc- 

 tion in other parts of the bay. Since the Chinese began operating last 

 fall three or four boats have fished intermittently and the total catch is 

 running about 350,000 pounds per year, which is but little over a third 

 of what the markets took before fishing was stopped in 1911. The boats 

 fish now only when the tides are most favorable and when the shrimps 

 are plentiful. It does not pay them, they say, to fish when the catches 

 are small. Formerly the profit was principally in the dried shrimps and 

 the larger ones were screened out and sold fresh as a side issue. The 

 price obtained now for the fresh shrimps is the same as then — 6 and 

 7 cents per pound — although the operating cost is much greater on 

 account of drying operations being cut off. 



