48 FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



dams can be constructed and the water level raised to impound the 

 surplus water. This practice of tapping the mountain lakes to increase 

 the flow in the outlet streams for power and other purposes will soon 

 cause considerable damage to our fishing streams. Those who are 

 capitalizing the water for power can well afford to construct dams to 

 raise the water, if it becomes necessary to hold back a surplus supply 

 for the low water period, instead of tapping the lakes and thus causing 

 damage to our fish life. 



Many other recommendations could be made on the subject of the 

 preservation of the fish for inland waters; but, until some action is 

 taken to regulate those who are taking water from our streams, we do 

 not deem it advisable to make any new recommendations regarding the 

 conditions that are detrimental to the lakes and streams of our state 

 containing fish life. 



Respectfully submitted. 



W. H. Shebley, 

 In charge Department of Fish Culture. 



REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCIAL 



FISHERIES. 



The Honorable Board of Fish and Game Commissioners of the State 

 of California. 



Sirs: In our last biennial report we told of the decline in the 

 volume of California's fisheries products during the years 1920 and 

 1921 after a phenomenal growth of our fisheries which reached its 

 peak in the year 1919. The most rapid growth was in our sardine 

 fisheries, located at Monterey, San Pedro and San Diego, and the main 

 stimulus was the export demand caused by the Great War. 



In 1919 the sardine catch in California exceeded 150,000,000 pounds, 

 nearly all of which was put into pound oval cans, the great bulk being 

 for export. With tlie slump in prices in 1920 coupled with the collapse 

 of foreign exchange most of our sardine canners were soon in distress. 

 There was an overproduction of canned sardines in this eountrv and 

 foreign countries could not pay a price which would give our canners 

 a profit. It so happened there was a good demand for fish meal and 

 fish oil — the by-products of the sardine canning industry — and that 

 more of a profit could be made by using the sardines for reduction 

 purposes than by i)utting them in cans for food. As practically 

 every fish cannery in this state has a reduction plant for handling the 

 fish offal from the canning operations, the canners were naturally 

 anxious to run these reduction ])lants to capacity. 



The so-called Pish Conservation Act passed in 1919 prohibited the 

 waste of fish or the use of any food fish except fish offal for reduction 

 purposes without first obtaining written permission from the Fish and 

 Game Commission. In the prosecution of the sardine canning industry 

 there is an unavoidable waste of fish, such as broken and soft fish or 

 fish too large or too small to pack properly. The fishermen frequently 

 make over catches which it is impossible to avoid. The written permits 

 to be issued by the Pish and Game Commission as provided in the 

 law, were intended to cover these unavoidable contingencies. 



