THIRTIETH BIENNIAL REPORT 113 



to get spearing and angling seasons to suit the various desires of sports- 

 men in the different parts of the state, a number of errors entered into 

 the bill. As a whole, the salmon law is now quite unsatisfactory in that 

 it does not suit the sportsmen anglers and does not give more than a 

 small part of the protection from commercial fishing which is needed 

 if we are to save the Sacramento salmon from commercial extinction. 

 When this salmon bill came up before the Senate Fish and Game Com- 

 mittee, a very strong effort was made by Sacramento commercial fisher- 

 men to have the fall season extended to permit them to cateli more fish, 

 on the claim that the salmon are running later than a few years ago. 

 The fishermen are honest in their conviction that the run on the river 

 is getting later — but what appears to be a lagging of the run is not real 

 but is due to serious depletion of the supply, during which the fish have 

 become so scarce that it does not pay the fishermen to fish until a later 

 time in the running season than formerly when the fish were more plen- 

 tiful. This is a well-known phenomenon to fisheries investigators. 

 (See page 116, "Is the Salmon Run Becoming Later on the Sacramento 

 River. 7 ") The committee listened to our plea and refused to extend 

 the season. 



Commercial fishing on the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers must 

 not he entirely blamed for the present scarcity of salmon on these rivers. 

 In the past years the fall season for commercial salmon fishing on these 

 rivers has been extended at two or three different times to a later date 1 

 on the claims of fishermen that the fish are running later. It was not 

 recognized at the time that Avhat appeared to be a gradual retarding 

 of the run was the effect of serious overfishing. Four years ago we 

 were able to get the closing date of the season put back from September 

 25 to September 17. That date is not early enough. It should be not 

 later than September 7. 



There are other causes which explain the growing scarcity of salmon 

 on the Sacramento River. The chief cause is the building of power and 

 irrigation dams which can not be surmounted by salmon. It is esti- 

 mated that fully 75 per cent of the former area of suitable spawning 

 heds have been shut off from the salmon. The silt from placer mining 

 ruined most of the Sierra streams for salmon. Unscreened irrigation 

 ditches have in the past taken a large toll from the young salmon migrat- 

 ing to the sea and this loss has not yet been entirely stopped. As the 

 reproduction of the salmon was cut down by these factors the commer- 

 cial catch on the river should have been cut down in proportion. But 

 it was not. Then later the sea trolling for salmon grew to be important, 

 being first developed at Monterey and later outside San Francisco har- 

 bor. The troll catch of some years exceeded five million pounds on 

 Monterey Bay and that, coupled with the catch off San Francisco, 

 equaled, roughly, the catch on the Sacramento River. Due to this large 

 troll catch, which was largely made up of Sacramento salmon, the total 

 catch on the river was greatly reduced. If this great added drain on 

 the Sacramento salmon supply by troll fishing was to be permitted, the 

 fishing seasons on the river should have been cut so as to compensate 

 for it, but this was not done — just as in the same way nothing much had 

 been done in the way of curtailing the river catch to compensate for the 

 damage done by dams, placer mining and screenless irrigation ditches. 



8—63870 



