FORTY-SECOND BIENNIAL REPORT 15 



THE FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 



Without question the boldest forward step taken by the five-man 

 Fish and Game Commission during the biennium was the implementa- 

 tion of a new deer management policy adopted at the close of the pre- 

 ceding biennium. Since inauguration of the buck law in 1907, Califor- 

 nia's deer herds have increased to the point where the annual surplus is 

 not being properly harvested. The waste of this resource, when hunters 

 report taking around 5 percent of the population of a million-plus deer, 

 while other western states crop 20, 25 and as high as 33 percent an- 

 nually, can be imagined. 



Simply, the 14-point policy aims to eliminate waste in the manage- 

 ment of California 's deer herds by bringing deer numbers into balance 

 with the carrying capacity of their ranges, to the advantage of the 

 hunters as well as the neighboring ranchers. 



The first antlerless deer hunting season on the California mainland 

 was declared by the commission in 1950. Under a lottery permit system, 

 hunters removed surplus deer which had overbrowsed their range. Sub- 

 sequent special hunting seasons, complying with the basic deer manage- 

 ment provisions, met with varying public reaction. It became evident 

 that an intensive educational program is needed to show the need for 

 immediate inauguration of deer management practices comparable to 

 those long applied by ranchers engaged in the successful production of 

 domestic livestock. 



Another much-needed action was taken by the commission in 1951 

 with the definition of an inland fisheries management policy. This master 

 plan for better fishing was drafted under the guidance of Alan C. Taft, 

 former chief of the Bureau of Fish Conservation, who retired toward 

 the close of the biennium. 



Both the deer and inland fisheries management policies appear in 

 Appendix F. 



In 1950, sportsmen and residents along the Southern California coast 

 became aroused over the loss of fish caused by offshore blasting in the 

 underwater search for oil deposits. There seemed reason to believe that 

 the seismic charges were injurious to fish life, and the commission with- 

 held all further seismic permits. 



Following tests made by the Scripps Institution of Oceangraphy, ex- 

 perimental permits were issued in order to test the effects of black 

 powder, instead of dynamite, charges. Results showed the new technique 

 harmless to fish life, and limited permits were again issued. 



The crisis in the sardine industry was something the commission and 

 its employees had warned of as early as 1939. The inability of various 

 factions of the industry to get together caused the commission to appoint 

 the director of the department as chairman of a representative com- 

 mittee with the primary assignment of recommending legislation to aid 

 the sardine fishery. At the end of the biennium the differences had not 

 3^et been resolved. 



In postwar years, enlightened sportsmen had been following more 

 closely the expenditure of their license dollars for widespread planting 

 of game birds. With the mounting cost of feed, the cost of raising and 

 releasing each pheasant, for example, totaled as much as two or three 

 dollars. Adding the expected field loss, the protection of hens and other 



