52 



FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 



Figure 11. California landings of rockflsh and flatfish (flounder, sole and turbot) 



decline has resulted partly from poor market conditions and partly from 

 a shortage of rockfish on some of the banks. The increase in catches of 

 sole has resulted from a steady increase in the number of boats, increase 

 in the efficiency of gear, development of new fishing grounds in waters 

 deeper than were formerly fished, and in the utilization of species for- 

 merh' regarded as trash fish. For example, the previously unutilized 

 Dover sole now provides the largest poundage of any single species of 

 flatfisl). The increased use of this species was largely responsible for 

 tl)(^ fact that the catch of flatfish in 1948 was the greatest ever recorded 

 in the State's history. The industry is just beginning to take large quan- 

 tities of scalj^-fin (Bellingham) sole, another formerly unutilized species. 

 In spite of the increase in total landings, the trawl fishery is not 

 as licaltliy as it would seem. There has been a decided decline in the 

 catclies of previously utilized fish and to some extent in the Dover sole, 

 a condition that has seriously worried the industry. Part of this has 

 doubtless been due to a great increase in the number of boats, but part 

 of it has also been due to unnecessary waste of small fish, and the resulting 

 decline in the numbers available. Prior to 1940, the trawlers were com- 

 pany-owned, and there were relatively few companies. At the suggestion 

 of the Division of Fish and Game these companies voluntarily limited 

 themselves to tlie use of nets with a bag of five-inch mesh or greater. 

 Tliis permitted the escape of large quantities of small uonsaleable flat- 

 fish. In more recent years the boats have been operated by individual 

 owners ; hence, the old agreement between the companies no longer held. 

 The boats have been using lu'fs with a mesh as fine as 21 inches, and 

 the nse (if such gear resulted in the loss of large quantities of fish which 



