American Fisheries Society. 93 
more than 50 feet deep between October 1 and May 1 of each 
year are exempt from the provisions of the act; (2) no sponges 
from said waters having a smaller maximum diameter than four 
inches shall be landed, delivered, cured, or offered for sale at any 
port or place in the United States; (3) the Secretary of Com- 
merece and Labor is directed to enforce the act, and is authorized 
to call on the vessels of the navy and revenue-cutter service to 
assist therein. 
Two bills designed to prevent citizens of other countries from 
engaging in the fisheries of the United States were under con- 
sideration but only one was passed. It applies to the waters of 
Alaska, and is particularly aimed at Japanese fishermen who, for 
several years, have been visiting the Alaskan coast in their ves- 
sels and making large catches of salmon and other fish. The re- 
port of the House committee on territories stated that the pro- 
posed legislation was “not by reason of the existence in the 
United States of any feeling of hostility toward the Japanese 
people, but because of the proximity of Japan to Alaska the 
Japanese fishermen fish more in Alaskan waters than all other 
aliens combined,” and the committee pointed out that Attu, the 
most western of the Alaskan islands, is 900 miles nearer to Tokyo 
than it is to San Francisco. The other measure, prohibiting 
aliens from gathering sponges within one marine league of the 
United States coasts, was directed against the Greeks who 
have recently gone to Florida in overwhelming numbers and en- 
gaged in the sponge fishery with diving apparatus. Unfortunate- 
ly this fishery is not susceptible of regulation in this way, as the 
entire catch is made beyond the three-mile hmit. The bill, 
if it becomes a law, will have the effect of preventing the Greeks 
from engaging in the sponge fishery among the Florida keys, 
and, taken in conjunction with the other restrictive sponge legis- 
lation, may aid in curtailing the ravages of our sponge grounds. 
After a struggle extending over many years, public sentiment 
in Maryland secured the enactment by the last legislature of a 
general law sanctioning the rental of bottoms for purposes of 
oyster culture. The law establishes a shellfish commission, and 
invites the co-operation of the United States Coast Survey and 
Bureau of Fisheries with the state in determining and defining 
the natural oyster bars. In order to give full force to this 
