BUREAU OF MARINE FISHERIES 



Responsible for the conservation and administration of ocean fisheries, 

 the Bureau of Marine Fisheries conducts research on the sport and com- 

 mercial fishing industries and recommends laws and regulations for 

 maintaining maximum sustained production. 



Most important of the bureau 's investigations concern salmon, bottom 

 fish, sardine, tuna, mackerel, kelp bass, abalone, and crab. The bureau 

 maintains biological and statistical staffs to gather and analyze data upon 

 which recommendations for conservation measures are based. The bureau 

 has laboratories at Terminal Island, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, 

 and Eureka. A stream improvement headquarters is located at Elk Grove. 

 Three research vessels and one small boat are operated, and another vessel 

 is used jointly with the Bureau of Fish Conservation. 



In the last six months of the biennium federal aid funds became avail- 

 able for cooperative studies of sport fisheries. Two projects concerned 

 with marine problems were established. These are discussed in the section 

 on Federal Aid in Fish Restoration. 



Highlights of the bureau 's work are to be found in the following pages. 

 Details are given in the various publications listed in Appendix H. 



SALMON 



After the peak years of 1945-1946, the California commercial salmon 

 catch dropped to about the average of the annual landings since 1916. 

 The 1949 catch was the lowest of the postwar period. 



The most important occurrence in the California salmon fishery during 

 the biennium was the closure of much of the Sacramento-San Joaquin 

 River gill net fishery by the State Legislature. This law did not go into 

 effect until shortly before the end of the 1951 season, but its full impact 

 will be felt in 1952. The net fishery is now confined to the area between 

 the Carquinez Bridge and a line drawn from Stake Point to Chipps 

 Island, near Pittsburg. 



Since 1948, cooperative salmon tagging operations have been conducted 

 in the ocean off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington as part 

 of a program intended to determine enough about the habits of these 

 fish to make better management a possibility. The Tri-State tagging 

 operation was drawing to a close in 1951, but some additional tagging has 

 been done in California. 



Salmon Tagging and Tag Development 



In 1951 some ocean salmon tagging was done aboard a chartered com- 

 mercial trolling boat ; the remainder was on sportfishing boats during 

 two "tag" days — one in February and one in November. 



The Golden Gate Sportfishers, a group of sportfishing skippers in the 

 San Francisco Bay area, offered to the department free use of a boat 

 each week day during the 1952 season for salmon tagging off the Golden 



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