54 FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



even attempt to use them in diseussing' the condition and the liability 

 to overfishing of such great fisheries as those for the sardine or herring. 

 This is all the more true in that until recently no data have been 

 collected to throw light upon those great natural changes which confuse 

 all present attempts to detect overfishing in such species as the sardine. 

 To emphasize this fact we give the views of one of the greatest French 

 authorities, Louis Fage, on the sardine, an opinion which may, in 

 greater or less degree be held true of almost all great fisheries. 



As Fage remarks, the available work on the sardine indicates that 

 while the insufficiency of our knowledge of the sardine is due in large 

 part to the lack of method and correlation in research, it is also due 

 to the lack of available records as to the course of the fisheries and the 

 fluctuations in their returns. Many of the questions which arise 

 must be solved solely by statistics, which must be well made and 

 comparable; and, as he says emphatically, it is astonishing to note the 

 insufficiency of statistics for such a great fishery. Those of France 

 have had their basis changed thrice, those of Portugal are based on 

 sale prices, those of Spain and Italy are nonexistent, while the 

 statistics in England, although good, are very recent. He enumerates 

 the facts which should be included in these records,, and are not, such 

 as the monthly landings, the dates of appearance, the average sizes, 

 etc., and ends with a statement the truth of which must be recognized, 

 "La statistique bioloque de la peche, telle que Hjort (1914) I'a definie, 

 devra s'imposer, tot ou tard, a tons les pays soucieux d 'exploiter ration- 

 nellement leurs mers".* (Biological statistics of the fisheries, such as 

 Hjort has defined, must be collected sooner or later by all the countries 

 desirous of exploiting their seas rationally.) 



The statistics which the Commission is collecting are of the nature 

 required for the following of the actual catch as it shows the abundance 

 of fish, and for the study of the natural changes occurring. They are 

 therefore of two kinds, of equal importance. 



One kind deals with the amount of the catch, giving riot merely the 

 grand total, but also the catch per boat, with the species, place of 

 landing, etc., and can be compiled day by day if desired. This type of 

 data is that which is mentioned in the above Cjuotation as so lacking in 

 the sardine fisheries. The California statistics of this kind are 

 gathered by means of the carbon duplicates of fishermen's receipts for 

 fish delivered to the dealers or canners. This system is described in 

 greater detail in a previous biennial report. (Biennial Report of the 

 California Fish and Game Commission, 1918-1920, pp. 56-58.) It is 

 cared for by assistants of the Commission in San Diego, San Pedro, 

 IMonterey and San Francisco. 



This year has seen the statistics for the fifth successive year correctly 

 filed and deposited in the State Fisheries Laboratory for safe-keeping. 

 The records are filed by the name of the individual boat, year by 

 year, and it is possible from them tn trace the size of the daily catches 

 for any species at any time. Tlic total take by locality has been 

 regularly reported every three months in the quarterly publication, 

 CaijIpornia Fish and Game, by an assistant devoting his time to such 

 work. More detailed statistics are being at present compiled for the 

 alhacore fishery by two assistants engaged under a co-operative agree- 



•Danish Oceanographical Expedition, Clupeidw, 1920. 



