A NEW LOOK AT 

 FISHERIES MANAGEMENT 



Introduction 



It is undoubtedly true that every sportsman and interested 

 person desires the assurance that fisheries management in the State 

 of Montana is based on sound principles that will be productive of 

 results. Undoubtedly the greatest single contribution to fisheries 

 management made this biennium by the Commission and its staff 

 of fisheries men with the support of the sportsmen is the "new-look" 

 they have taken at the program and the selection they have made 

 of "sound principles" for guiding the program. 



To say that a scientific aproach has been chosen sounds pedantic, 

 but actually it is not. It is no more than putting trained or ex- 

 perienced men to work who will act without bias, without prejudice, 

 and without interest in personal gain. As these men work and make 

 observations, they keep precise records; they let the facts from 

 these records speak for them. In addition they make the facts from 

 these records available to other fisheries workers throughout the 

 world, and they, in tuin, keep informed of facts produced by work 

 elsewhere. 



This "new-look" at fisheries management has been made for 

 just one purpose: to determine the causes for declined fishing suc- 

 cess so that a sound program may develop to meet the changing 

 needs. A great deal has been leained about the decline in fishing 

 success and a program is being developed to hold the quality of 

 fishing at as high a level as possible. The Fish and Game Commis- 

 sion has jurisdiction over very few of the factors which affect fish- 

 ing; therefore this program can be developed and can proceed no 



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