THIRTY-SECOND BIENNIAL REPORT 71 



amount of salmon caught on trolls in Monterey Bay and outside the 

 heads at San Francisco equaled the amount caught in the Sacrament o 

 River, and that since 1926 the ocean catch at San Francisco and 

 Monterey Bay has averaged nearly double that of the Sacramento River. 

 Beginning with 1916, the total river catch of salmon in the State was 

 but slightly less than the total ocean catch but, since that time, the 

 river catch has declined more rapidly than that' of the ocean until 

 during the last five years the total river catch has been only one-third 

 as large as the ocean catch. 



One of the most important measures for the protection of salmon 

 in the ocean was a minimum size limit of 27 inches for Chinook salmon 

 and 24 inches for silver salmon. The minimum size limit for Chinook 

 salmon was based on the salmon investigations carried on for a number 

 of years by Dr. J. 0. Snyder. These investigations showed that, during 

 the trolling seasons as adopted, 27 inches would be the size which comes 

 about midway between the average size of the group of salmon which 

 have passed the age of three years and are in their fourth year and 

 the average size of those which are in their third year. As each age 

 group of salmon tends to school together, the fishermen will avoid the 

 schools which are composed of salmon in their third or in their second 

 year. This measure, contrary to the expectation of many of the fisher- 

 men, has worked out very satisfactorily and the fishermen are now 

 mostly satisfied with the limits adopted. 



The Sacramento River fishermen voluntarily agreed to abandon 

 fishing for the fall run of salmon — which is much the larger of the 

 two runs — above Rio Vista bridge on the Sacramento and above a 

 point on Venice Island on the San Joaquin. A new district, 12-C, was 

 therefore created for this part of the two rivers and the season closed 

 during the entire time the fall salmon are running. 



As a result of these excellent measures, the catch of salmon in 

 1931 was less than the previous year in all districts except in the 

 ocean districts from Mendocino County north. Many more salmon 

 than usual escaped up the rivers to spawn and the spawn-taking 

 stations and hatcheries of the State and of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, 

 whose capacities had been cut down with the decline of the salmon 

 runs, were taxed to their utmost. The take of salmon eggs by the 

 U. S. Bureau on the Sacramento River was the largest in many years, 

 and it was the first time for an equally long period that the U. S. 

 Bureau had to turn over some of the eggs to the State for hatching. 

 If we can hold the ground which had been gained, there is a good 

 chance to build up the depleted runs, at least in the Sacramento River. 



TUNA 



The tuna canning industry, next in size to the sardine industry, 

 has also been seriously affected by the depression. The tuna canners, 

 being all located in southern California, have been able to get together 

 and curtail production. As practically all the canned tuna is sold 

 in the United States, the tuna canners are in much better position than 

 the sardine canners who have been selling most of their product in 

 foreign countries. For these reasons, the tuna packers have entered 

 the 1932 season in fairly good shape. 



