Cobb. — Fisheries of the Pacific. 71 



Bureau of Fisheries has greatly aided us in acquiring suffi- 

 cient equipment for fish cultural research work. We are, 

 however, much hampered by lack of equipment for freezing 

 and smoking work, and vessels for carrying on dredging, 

 plankton and other work, but hope in time to overcome this. 



GOVERNMENT AID TO FISHERIES. 



Many people have the impression that our federal Gov- 

 ernment has done much to foster and upbuild our fisheries, 

 and, while this is true to a certain extent, much of its efforts 

 have been ineffective through the failure of Congress to 

 appreciate the value of this work. Despite the very inade- 

 quate support of Congress, the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries has 

 been, and is doing much to aid and foster the industry. 



The reverse is the case with Japan. Just as it was the 

 pioneer in fishery education, so it has been the pioneer in the 

 intelligent upbuildng of its fisheries and the expansion of the 

 foreign demand for its prepared products. Many people 

 object to certain phases of this work as carried on by the 

 Japanese, but I have nothing but admiration for the in- 

 telligent and immensely effective way they have gone about 

 it, and wish our own people would adopt the majority of 

 their methods, which I think would immensely profit us and 

 place our fisheries in an unassailable position both at home 

 and abroad. 



Less than a decade ago the Japanese awoke to the fact 

 that they had at their doors raw fishery products similar to 

 those from which other nations were preparing much liked 

 secondary products, and drawing wealth therefrom. These 

 were principally salmon, cod, sardines, herring, mackerel, 

 tunny, trout, crabs, shrimp and prawns, oysters and clams. 

 A public sentiment on the subject was soon aroused and a 

 number of firms and companies engaged in the business of 

 preparing such, mainly by canning, and endeavored to dis- 

 pose of them abroad, the purchasing power of the Japanese 

 people not permitting them to become much of a consuming 

 factor in connection with such high cost products. Very 

 much to the packers' and government's surprise, the foreign 

 consumer almost uniformly refused to accept the products 

 with the result that the packers suffered large losses. 



Did the Japanese tamely throw up the game at this 

 stage? Far from it. With their usual astuteness they 

 studied the matter pro and con and finally came to the con- 

 clusion that their methods of preparation had not suffi- 

 ciently taken into account the great progress which had been 

 made in canning methods in other countries, nor the likes 



