70 FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 



County coast and continued until February of the following year. 

 The ship took an estimated amount of 21,000 tons of sardines. 



There appears to be no present way of preventing the operation 

 of such plants which lie just outside the State's jurisdiction and make 

 free use of what are considered the State's fish. Under the federal 

 laws and rulings of the customs courts, such a plant does not pay an 

 important duty on fish meal or oil unless it is operating under a 

 foreign flag. 



A cooperative company of twelve or fifteen California purse seine 

 boat owners have contracted to take over the old motorship Lansing, 

 used by the California Sea Products Co. for a number of years in 

 whaling operations. This vessel is being refitted with modern presses 

 and cookers sufficient to handle 900 tons of sardines daily, and the 

 company expects to begin operations off the northern California coast 

 about October 1, 1932. The company hopes to take 50,000 tons of 

 sardines during the season. 



The fish for these floating reduction plants are caught outside the 

 three-mile limit, and a constant watch has been kept of the fishermen's 

 operations by the patrol boat Albacore, to see that they do not fish 

 within the State's jurisdiction. 



SALMON 



In each biennial report for the past ten years we have told of 

 the very serious depletion of the salmon — at one time the most valuable 

 of the State's fishery resources — and of how we had not succeeded in 

 getting adequate protective measures passed by the Legislature. 

 Such measures as were passed to curb sea trolling for salmon proved 

 to be defective, and we were prevented from enforcing them in the 

 more important districts by court injunctions. 



This time we have a different story to tell. Most of the commercial 

 fishermen agreed to the protective measures proposed, and a very satis- 

 factory bill was passed by the Legislature as an emergency measure. 

 In addition to this, the cases in court, in which the State's right to 

 prohibit the possession of salmon caught outside the three-mile limit 

 was challenged, were decided in favor of the State. 



One of these was a United States Supreme Court decision which 

 definitely upholds the State's right to establish closed seasons in the 

 ocean trolling districts and to enforce these seasons by prohibiting 

 the possession of salmon, irrespective of where they are caught. This 

 is a very important decision for conservation, as it is now definitely 

 settled that a State can give protection to salmon off its coast and 

 outside its jurisdiction by prohibiting their possession within its juris- 

 diction. 



These decisions made it possible also to enforce independent seasons 

 for the different districts along our coast. Seasons were therefore 

 adopted for the ocean trolling districts which give protection during 

 the times of the year when the majority of the salmon are small and 

 immature. These seasons also give protection to the latter end of the 

 run of adult salmon as they pass up our coast, preparatory to entering 

 the streams for the purpose of spawning. 



The importance of better protection for the salmon while they are 

 in the ocean can be seen when it is known that from 1916 to 1926, the 



