THIRTIETH BIENNIAL REPORT 



105 



what is happening to the fish population, we must take into account the 

 fishing effort. Total catches, taken alone, are misleading. If the total 

 catch of a species is on the decline, in spite of an increased demand and 

 an increased effort to catch the fish, then we can he reasonably certain 

 that the species is actually declining in numbers. The best measure of 

 the abundance of any commercial species of fish is the average catch for 

 a given unit of effort. This method is being followed by the bureau 

 with those species for which there is any cause for worry. (See former 

 biennial reports, more especially the reports of the Director of the State 

 Fisheries Laboratory.) 



In the fisheries conservation program which we are following, we are 

 less interested in the study of conditions in the sea which may cause 

 fluctuations in the abundance of the commercial species of fish than we 

 are in what is actually happening in the fisheries themselves. We are 

 primarily interested in the abundance of the species and in the intensity 

 of the fishing effort as revealed by the statistics of the catch. If we do 

 not find out what the fluctuations are in the abundance of the com- 



u< 





# ,i». 



* \**M* > : ^*** 



Fig. 34. Patrol boat Albacore searching for spiny lobster traps set in kelp beds 

 during the closed season. Only a small block of wood floating at the surface marks 

 the trap. Photograph by E. S. Cheney. 



mercial species we have nothing to explain; and a study of life histories 

 or of conditions in the sea will not aid us in our work of safeguarding 

 the species from overexploitation. 



SARDINES 



The sardine catch in California for the calendar year 1926 was 

 286,741,250 pounds, and for the year 1927 342,275,289 pounds. These 

 amounts are greater than for the preceding biennial period. The 

 amount of sardines caught is more than three times the catch of all 

 other species combined. 



In our last biennial report we stated that a good market had devel- 

 oped for our sardines. The pack was being sold at a profit and it 

 appeared that the good times the canners had been looking for were 

 coming. During the season of 1926-27 sardines were plentiful and a 

 larger pack was put up. The price for the canned fish remained very 



