62 FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCIAL 



FISHERIES. 



By N. B. ScOFiELD, In Charge. 



Since making our last biennial report there have been a number of 

 changes in the Department of Commercial Fisheries. In July, 1924, 

 it became necessary to employ an attorney for the impending litigation 

 witli a few canners and reduction plants in their attempt to have the 

 fish reduction act declared unconstituional. B. D. Marx Greene was 

 employed as special counsel for the department, where he remained until 

 January, 1926, when he was appointed to the position of executive 

 officer of the Commission. 



I can not praise Mr. Greene too highly for his quick grasp of the 

 highly technical details of the sardine canning and reduction industries 

 and his knowledge of the rather special field of fish and game litigation. 

 Added to this was his excellent handling of all the cases in the courts. 

 One of these, in tlie State Supreme Court {State of California vs. The 

 Monterey Fish Products Company) resulted in a decision by that court 

 which is nation wide in its importance. 



After Mr. Greene's appointment as executive officer, the Commission 

 was reorganized. This reorganization was of consideral)le importance 

 to the department of commercial fisheries, in that it brought al>out a 

 more business-like arrangement whereby the departments reported 

 through the executive officer instead of to each separate commissioner 

 according to which part of the state was in C[uestion. This did away 

 with one policy in the enforcement of laws in one part of the state and 

 a different policy in another part of the state. 



A department of patrol was formed which took over the commercial 

 fisheries patrol in San P'rancisco and on San Francisco Bay which had 

 been in charge of the department of commercial fisheries. The Depart- 

 ment of Commercial Fisheries kept the commercial patrol which operates 

 out of the department 's offices at Monterey, San Pedro and San Diego. 

 The department also gave up its work on bay and harbor pollution which 

 was taken over by the new Bureau of Bay and Harbor Pollution. 



Captain H. B. Nidever is in charge of the commercial patrol for 

 southern California with headquarters at our San Pedro office. Mr. 

 Nidever is especially well qualified for this position. He has been 

 with the Commission on fisheries Avork for eighteen years, and has been 

 with this department since its organization. 



Our last biennial report told of the rapid growth of the sardine fishery 

 in this state during the time of the war, reaching its peak in 1919 ; and 

 of the slump and decline of the fishery in 1920 and 1921, due in large 

 measure to marketing conditions in foreign countries; how the lowest 

 ebb was reached in 1921 and then the rapid rise until in 1923 the sar- 

 dine catch was equal to that of the banner year of 1919 and the state's 

 fisheries as a whole were likely in a short time to equal the mark 

 reached through the stimulus of the war. This prediction has been 

 fulfilled and during the past two years the total production of the 

 fisheries, during either of the years, has exceeded that of any year in 

 the history of the state. The total catch of all fish for the year 1924 



