62 



FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 



The investigations in the San Joaquin Delta have been greatly facili- 

 tated by the construction of the new Fish and Game research vessel, 

 Striper. This vessel is o\^aied by the Bureau of Fish Conservation and is 

 manned by a netman and boatswain employed by the Bureau of Marine 

 Fisheries. His time is divided about equally between the two bureaus. 



The Striper is a 28-foot Frazer River type gill-net boat with a power 

 reel for winding up gill nets. It is equipped with bunks and facilities 

 for cooking. When used by Fish Conservation, most of the Striper's 



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Figure 14. Fish and Game boat Striper jointly used by the Bureau of Marine Fisheries 

 and the Bureau of Fish Conservation for research in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. 



Photograph by Kramer Adams. 



time is spent working on striped bass. Marine Fisheries uses most of its 

 share of the boat's time on salmon investigation but has done some work 

 on crabs. The boat has been used for tow net hauls, for the dragging of 

 small trawls and dredges, and for gill-netting to obtain striped bass and 

 salmon for tagging. The power-operated net reel makes this last opera- 

 tion far easier and more efficient. The use of this power reel makes it 

 pf)ssible for the operators to make as many as six comparatively short 

 gill-net drifts where a crew with a hand-pulled gill net would find it 

 possible to make no more than two long drifts. This means that the fish 

 spend a relatively short time tangled in our nets, hence are much less 

 weakened by being held. A net is strung out in an appropriate place and 

 allowed to drift for whatever length of time seems most desirable, usually 

 about an hour, and then is picked up. To pick up the net, one operator 

 steps on a treadle in the rear of the boat. This starts the big reel turning 

 slowly and brings in the net until a fish is reached. One man can fish 

 with this type of boat ; two men can both fish and tag if the fish are not 

 very abundant. Tn the event of a heavy run of either salmon or striped 

 Itass, thr<r men are desirable. 



