106 



FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 



good until a time in the spring when packing ordinarily stops, due to 

 the soft and unsuitable condition of the fish. The temptation to con- 

 tinue packing while the price was good was too much for some of the 

 packers to resist. The result was an overproduction and a slump in 

 the market. In the sardine season of 1927-28 a still larger pack was 

 produced and the price remained very low. Two and a half million 

 cases of one-pound oval cans of sardines were put up, and the same 

 practice of canning too late in the spring was continued. As a result, 

 the next season was sure to open with a large carry-over, and the indus- 

 try was in anything but a healthy condition. All the canners are in 

 favor of establishing by law a closed season during the time sar- 

 dines are not in prime condition for canning. 



At different times the canners have attempted to organize so as to 

 overcome some of the bad features of the sardine canning industry, but 



Fig. 35. Typical round haul boat unloading sardines at cannery in southern Cali- 

 fornia. Photograph by FJ. S. Cheney, fall of 1928. 



without any great success. As the economic situation was getting 

 rather desperate during the season of 1927-28, a sardine export 

 association was organized under the Webb-Pomerene Act, with nearly 

 all of the canners who pack pound-oval sardines as members. B. D. 

 Marx Greene was chosen secretary-manager of the organization. 

 Mr. Greene's resignation as attorney of the Bureau of Commer- 

 cial Fisheries became effective on March 1, 1928, and immediately there- 

 after he was retained by a group of the sardine canners to make a 

 survey and submit plans for organization. 



As a result, two organizations have been formed. One, the California 

 Sardine Export Association, has to do only with the business of sar- 

 dine export and is expected to help do away with the bad practices 



