REPORT OF THE FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 95 



is a sufficient supply, even though many may engage in the same 

 industry. 



At the present time there are four companies operating at San Diego, 

 five at Long Beach and one near Wilmington. There are also several 

 other factories being constructed at San Diego and Long Beach. 

 Already three million dollars has been invested in the plants in southern 

 California. Sixteen large reapers are employed, which have an average 

 capacity of 200 tons each per day. The larger of the companies now 

 operating are : The Hercules Powder Company, at National City ; Swift 

 Packing Company, San Diego ; American Products Company, Long 

 Beach ; and The Diamond Match Company, at Wilmington. 



There has been considerable uneasiness as to what effect the cutting 

 of kelp will have on the fisheries of the state. Many fear that the 

 cutting will destroy the beds and thus the protection which the kelp 

 affords the beaches will be removed and that the clams which inhabit the 

 beaches and the spiny lobsters which live more or less M-ithin the pro- 

 tection of the kelp will be greatly injured. Also that the young fi.sh, 

 especially the young barracuda, which are in the habit of seeking a 

 refuge in the kelp, will be deprived of this refuge and will leave that 

 part of the coast. It is also believed by many that the kelp beds are 

 extensively used as spawning places for many of our commercial fish; 

 that they attach their eggs to the kelp and that if the kelp is removed 

 these eggs will be destroyed. 



These beliefs are almost entirely groundless. Members of the Scripps 

 Institution for Biological Research at La Jolla, employed by the govern- 

 ment in its kelp investigations, are still engaged in watching the effect 

 of cutting by the several large companies located there. It is their 

 opinion that these companies are not 'likely, at least within the next 

 several years, to devise kelp cutters or reapers which will cut the kelp 

 more than six feet below the surface of the water. It has been observed 

 that after one of these reapers has passed over a bed cutting the kelp 

 to a depth of six feet that the kelp floats to the surface and it is difficult 

 to even tell where the cutter has been. At the worst, there will be 

 much of the kelp, especially along the edges of the beds, that will not 

 be touched and which will afford protection to the beaches. It has been 

 pointed out that where great masses of kelp grow in beds a violent 

 storm detaches the plants from their holdfasts and the whole mass is 

 carried away, thus leaving the beach unprotected. It is believed that 

 where beds have been subjected to cutting that they will not be washed 

 out by storms and will be a better protection to the beaches. Further, 

 the kelp will still be a refuge for fish, even if it is cut six feet below the 

 surface. It will also be a refuge for crawfish. Few or none of our 

 commercial fishes spawn in the kelp beds. 



