THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OF FISHERIES: 



ITS ESTABLISHMENT. FUNCTIONS, ORGANIZATION 

 RESOURCES, OPERATIONS, AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 



By HUGH M. SMITH, 

 Deputy Commissioner oj Fisheries. 



ESTABLISHMENT AND FUNCTIONS. 



Prior to 1871 there was no branch of the United States Government 

 especially charged with the consideration of fishery affairs, although fishery 

 questions of greater or less import, some domestic, some foreign, had been 

 arising ever since the achievement of national independence. Several of the 

 States had already established fish commissions, and there arose among the 

 state fishery authorities and the members of the American Fish Cultural Asso- 

 ciation (now the American Fisheries Society) an urgent demand for a national 

 bureau devoted to fishery interests. Congress was thus influenced to action, 

 and in the year named passed a joint resolution creating the office of Commis- 

 sioner of Fish and Fisheries, whose duties were specified as follows: 



The Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries shall prosecute investigations and inquiries 

 on the subject, with the view of ascertaining whether any and what diminution in the 

 number of the food-fishes of the coast and the lakes of the United States has taken 

 place; and, if so, to what causes the same is due; and also whether any and what pro- 

 tective, prohibitory, or precautionary measures should be adopted in the premises; 

 and shall report upon the same to Congress. 



It was further provided that the commissioner should be a civil officer of 

 the Government, of proved scientific and practical acquaintance with the fishes 

 of the coast, who would serve without additional compensation. The man 

 generally regarded as preeminently qualified for the new position was Spencer 

 FuUerton Baird, then Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, who 



1367 



