108 



FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 



Legislation. 



Prior to the 1927 session of the legislature, a full meeting of the sar- 

 dine canners of the state was held at Los Angeles. This meeting was 

 attended by the Commissioners and executive officer of the Fish and 

 Game Commission and by members of the Bureau of Commercial 

 Fisheries. It was agreed at this meeting that the canners and the Com- 

 mission would work together at the legislature to get the sardine reduc- 

 tion act amended. It was agreed that the bill was to be drawn up by 

 the Fish and Game Commission and should provide that from each ton 

 of sardines received the canners be required to produce fifteen cases of 

 pound-oval sardines on the average of each calendar month, or prefer- 

 ably in each lunar month, and that in case a canner fell behind in one 

 month he was to have an additional month in which to make up the 



Pig. 36. New type of fishing boat used off Mexican coast. Several tons of live 

 bait carried in tanks have given this type the name of "bait boat." Photograph by 

 B. S. Cheney. 



deficiency. The bill would have eliminated the special provision 

 whereby sardines may be taken for the production of edible oil. A 

 number of other minor measures were to be incorporated in the bill. 



The canners' legislative committee was dissatisfied with the Commis- 

 sion's draft of the bill, and in our efforts to get together, it became 

 finally evident that the part of the committee representing southern 

 California was in favor of permitting sardines to be taken for manu- 

 facturing edible oil. They preferred to let the law stand as it was, they 

 said. All efforts to get together failed, and as it became evident that 

 the Senate Fish and Game Committee would not pass the bill out, it was 

 finally withdrawn. We were therefore left with the same law, which 

 was unsatisfactory and somewhat ambiguous due to the fact that an 

 indefinite portion had been declared unconstitutional by the courts. 



