THIRTIETH BIENNIAL REPORT 23 



A patrol and inspection service is maintained by this bureau to see 

 that the terms of the permits and licenses are complied with, and the 

 law in general enforced. 



A large, well equipped laboratory is maintained at Terminal Island, 

 San Pedro, with the function of conducting scientific investigations of 

 our marine fishes, to furnish information and knowledge of their sup- 

 ply, breeding grounds, habits and other characteristics; to serve as a 

 practical aid to the commercial fishing and canning industry, as well 

 as providing a means of more accurately determining the proper seasons 

 or restrictions to insure conservation. 



The value of California fishery products reaches the astonishing figure 

 of twenty-five million dollars. This was due partly to the great diver- 

 sity of commercial fishes a year. There are over sixty species of 

 fresh and shell fish, thus allowing a year round supply of fresh edible 

 food fish for our California markets, as well as canned products for the 

 whole world. Of the varieties caught, the sardine catch exceeds the 

 combined catch of all other species three to one. 



In the sardine canning industry the manufacture of by-products 

 appears to be the most profitable part of the business. Indeed, the out 

 and out reduction of fish for fertilizer is by far the most profitable 

 method of using sardines, and if the state law did not prevent the unre- 

 stricted manufacture of this food fish for fertilizer, it is most probable 

 that a tremendously increased tonnage of sardines would be taken and 

 so manufactured as there seems to be an unlimited market for such fer- 

 tilizer product. 



Next to the manufacture of fertilizer, the most profitable process is 

 the reduction of fish for oil. This practice through ill-advised action 

 was permitted under certain restrictions by the 1925 act of the legisla- 

 ture, and if carried out on the extensive scale that prospects indicate, 

 a serious condition in so far as the conservation of this supply of food 

 fish is concerned may arise, as in the case of unlimited reduction for fer- 

 tilizer, for it appears there is a large if not unlimited market for such 

 fish oil. 



On the other hand, the straight canning business apparently does 

 not appear to be profitable to all of the canners. Certain canners have 

 informed the undersigned that they are selling their canned sardines 

 for about the cost, or less than cost, of production, and are willing to 

 do this for the profit they are able to make out of the by-products, to wit, 

 fertilizer and oil, which come from the offal of the fish canned and from 

 the 25 per cent of the fish taken into the plant which is allowed by law. 



In the early part of the biennium the division had difficulty in enforc- 

 ing the laws of the state and regulations of the Commission prohibiting 

 the unrestricted use of sardines for fertilizer, and a number of lawsuits 

 were instituted which, in most instances, were successfully maintained 

 and such unrestricted fertilizer manufacture was enjoined by order of 

 court. 



To secure uniform application and enforcement of this law the Com- 

 mission made an order requiring each sardine canner to produce from 

 every ton of fish taken fifteen cases of canned sardines. This would 

 allow the canner to reduce to fertilizer and oil the offal of the fish 

 canned, plus the full 25 per cent of the whole fish taken, which is the 

 maximum amount, allowed by law.. Permitting the canner to can or 



