TWENTY-NINTPI BIENNIAL REPORT. 67 



any extent before, but wlien the smaller boats with their lampara nets 

 could not supply the canneries tliey took a hand. They located sardines 

 near Santa Cruz Island, eighty miles to the north of San Pedro, and 

 from this distance delivered enough sardines throughout the season 

 to save the day for the canners. 



In the negotiations between the fishermen and the canners over the 

 price to be paid for sardines during the coming season of 1926-1927, 

 the purse seines have been used as a threat against the lampara fisher- 

 men to keep the price down. This more especially applied to Monterey. 

 The price last year was $10 per ton. The fishermen asked $12.50 a ton 

 this season, finally compromising on $11, but not until after tAvo purse 

 seine boats had been brought to Monterey, where purse seines had not 

 been used for quite a number of years. The comparative efficiency 

 of these two methods of catching sardines will be watched with interest. 



The provision in the law whereby a reduction process may be used 

 to convert sardines into human food, provided one-half of the wet 

 weight of the fish is used in the process, was taken advantage of by 

 the Bayside Fish Flour Company at Monterey. The fish flour has so far 

 been exported although the company hopes to create a home demand. 

 This process is about the same as in the manufacture of fish meal for 

 fertilizer or stock feed, but it differs in that the ground meal is pressed 

 through fine boulting screens, thus eliminating the bone and all but 

 the finely pulverized muscle fiber. This process is looked upon more 

 or less with suspicion by some of the canners, for it is a reduction 

 process and not much more expensive than the process of making fish 

 meal for fertilizer. 



The provision in the law under which sardines may be taken for the 

 oil, provided the oil be used for human consumption, was taken 

 advantage of by two companies — the Globe Cotton Oil Mills of Los 

 Angeles and the Hauser Packing Company of Los Angeles. We 

 believe that this provision of the law is dangerous and contrary to the 

 legislature's policy of confining the use of food fish to the production 

 of human food. The amount of oil in sardines averages about 15 per 

 cent of the wet weight of the fish and so long as this small percentage 

 is used for human food the rest of the fish can be and is used for 

 fertilizer or stock feed. The demand for animal fats such as sardine 

 oil is almost without limit so that there is danger of an immense 

 }"eduction industry getting started in the state which will seriously 

 deplete the supply of fish and injure the canned sardine industry, the 

 first to be established, the one giving the most people employment and 

 the one which the state has sought to protect. We are confident that if 

 sardines can not be taken directly for this purpose, means will be 

 employed to utilize the oil from the by-products plants of the canneries 

 and we believe that the best policy for the state to pursue, from the 

 standpoint of conservation, is to confine the production of sardine oil 

 to that which may be obtained from the bj^-products of the sardine 

 canneries. 



SALMON. 



In our report of two years ago we told of the failure of the law 

 which was designed to stop salmon trolling during certain closed 

 seasons in the sea districts. As recommended in that report, the legis- 

 lature amended the law but this law has again proven defective. The 



