146 REPORT OF THE FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



thereupon at every opportunity, and a special arrangement was entered 

 into whereby a resident deputy was commissioned to expedite enforce- 

 ment of the laws designed to protect the sporting fishing thereabouts, 

 which has been a peculiar and unique asset of southern California, with 

 its opportunity to catch the great tuna, the gamier swordfish of both 

 species, the heavier black sea bass, and numerous smaller kinds. 



Laws passed to protect the angling along the seashore by prohibiting 

 the netting or sale of the characteristic game fishes of the littoral have 

 been enforced against several professional seiners whose gear was con- 

 fiscated and sold, justice being tempered with mercy in all cases but 

 those wherein wilful ami repeated violation was proved. The patrol 

 work incidental to enforcing these laws has been financed by the collec- 

 tion of angling licenses from surf fishermen, who are numerous and 

 ever-growing in southern California and who show a sportsmanlike 

 disposition to pay a fair proportion of the expense necessary to protect 

 their favorite varieties. 



Beside the immediate features of enforcement work, numerous inves- 

 tigations have been carried forward by experts in the employ of the 

 commission. The activities of kelp harvesters, prospect of successful 

 acclimatization of striped bass in the lagoons of the south, angling and 

 life conditions in Bear Lake, and shellfish are a few of the matters 

 covered. The tuna packing industry, which has become the largest 

 individual feature of the fish trade in California, surpassing even the 

 salmon industry in whose development a lifetime and enormous sums 

 have been spent, has had the benefit of the commission's fisheries experts 

 who studied the habits and wanderings of the albacore, commonly 

 canned as tuna. Ten years ago a waste product, this "chicken of the 

 sea" is now familiar to nearly every family, and its development into 

 a state resource has cost California not a penny other than the penalty 

 of years of profit lost through not knowing its sterling value earlier. 



Fish and game may now be said to stand upon a substantial footing 

 in the south, financially, physically and morally. With the most 

 up-to-date hatchery in the world nearing completion on the eastern 

 slope of the Sierras ready to begin work on next spring's eggs, there is 

 reason to believe all freshwater fish conditions will steadily improve. 

 The steady growth in license income took a sudden and most noteworthy 

 spring this summer, until it would be a bold man indeed who would 

 attempt to predict its total ten years hence; but so long as every unit- 

 increase in the demand brings with it another dollar to defray the cost 

 of additional sport demanded, just so long will that increase be denied 

 any terrors for those whose hope and best wish is ever "more fish to 

 catch, more game to shoot" for all Calif ornians. 

 Respectfully submitted. 



(Signed) Edwin L. Hedderly, 



Assistant. 



