I 



FORTY-THIRD BIENNIAL REPORT 

 MARINE FISHERIES 



59 



As additional demands are placed on California's oceanic and inshore salt water natural resources, 

 the value of more factual knowledge concerning them becomes increasingly important. A mushroom- 

 ing population, greater pressures for recreation and use of ocean products for food and industry all 

 hav^e had their effect on the sea and its inhabitants. 



The Marine Fisheries Branch is concerned with the 

 conservation of these resources. Many diverse and im- 

 portant commercial and sport fish activities are under 

 the administration and study by the branch, and 

 through constant contact with the complex ocean 

 fishery, the branch recommends conservation and 

 management practices. 



The branch conducts investigations on the import- 

 ant segments of marine fauna with tunas, salmons, sar- 

 dines, sport fishes, bottom fishes, oysters, abalones, and 

 other shellfishes of major concern. Work is directed 

 from headquarters through the field laboratories lo- 

 cated at Terminal Island and Stanford. Fisheries inves- 

 tigations centered in the Southern California region 

 are under the Terminal Island Laboratory as is the 

 statistical operation. Fisheries studies of Central and 

 Northern California are directed by the Branch Lab- 

 oratory located at Stanford University, with accessory 

 facilities for investigations located at Pacific Grove 

 and Eureka. 



I The collection and processing of fish landing rec- 

 ords is one of the most important phases of marine 

 management, as only through the collection of these 

 basic records can knowledge of what is happening to 

 the fisherv be obtained. This phase of the branch 

 work is the keystone upon which understanding of 

 the entire marine resources is based. 



DECREASING SARDINE FISHERY 



In spite of danger signs over the years, repeated 

 warnings from the Department of Fish and Game, 

 and requests by the commission and the department 

 for regulation and management of the fishery, all of 

 which went unheeded, near collapse came in 1953 to 

 the California sardine industry. During each of the 

 past two seasons scarcely 5,000 tons were taken, a 

 total equivalent to only an average day's fishing for 

 any of the State's major ports during their heyday. 



Causes of this catastrophe, resulting in heavy finan- 

 cial loss to the fishermen, the failure of many process- 

 ing plants and a general economic disturbance in the 

 whole industry, are twofold; heavy mortality among 

 the older sardines, and failure in recruitment of young 

 fish to the population. 



Sardines in fishable numbers were not to be found 

 on the California grounds. The only fisheries extant 

 at the close of the biennium were those operating out 

 of the Baja California ports of Ensenada and Cedros 

 Island. Sardines from these iMexican waters have 

 moved to the California grounds in former years and 



fishermen optimistically hope that they will do so 

 again. Surveys by the department, continued during 

 the past two years show, however, that there are not 

 enough fish in these southern waters to support a 

 fishery of the magnitude needed for a healthy Cali- 

 fornia industry. As a consequence, \vhen and if Mex- 

 ican sardines should move north they could not bring 

 about a complete restoration of the sagging fishery. 



Much Below Average 



During the 35 years in which studies have been 

 made on sardine populations, survival from each sea- 

 son's spawning has varied markedly. Outstanding con- 

 tribution of young fish to the population and to the 

 fishery occurred every two, three or four years. Since 

 1939, no group of young fish exceeded average abun- 

 dance and several were much below average, notably 

 sardines resulting from the 1944, 1945, 1949, 1950, 

 1951, 1952, and 1953 spawnings. Thus for 7 of the 

 last 15 years nature has not restored to the population 

 the numbers which have been lost through man's ac- 

 tivities and through natural causes. 



Explaining the lack of sardines on the California 

 fishing grounds, nature's failure to provide new re- 

 cruits to the population, and the part man has played 

 in bringing about this lack, is the task of the Marine 

 Fisheries Branch and of the other agencies working in 

 a cooperative investigation of the sardine and its en- 

 vironment. 



The Marine Fisheries Branch lias continued its as- 

 sessment of sardine population abundance in Baja Cali- 

 fornia as well as in California waters. Cruises in the 

 last half of 1952 showed a scarcity of all such fish off 

 California and no increase off the Mexican coast. 

 Young fish resulting from the 1952 spawning were 

 more numerous than in 1949, 1950, and 1951, but were 

 not found in great numbers. In 1953 sardines again 

 were very scarce off California, nor were there any 

 indications of good survival of the young from the 

 1953 spawning. An additional disturbing factor is the 

 almost complete absence of spawning on the offshore 

 grounds in Southern California, ivhich in forjner years 

 were the major source of new recruits to the Cali- 

 fornia popidation. 



Studies of size and age composition of fish in the 

 cannery catch have been continued in cooperation 

 with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In both sea- 

 sons of the biennium the remnant fishery depended 

 chiefly on sardines four to eight years old and 

 spawned prior to 1949. In 1952-53 these older fishes 



