CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 



125 



would be washed out and cast high on 

 the beach if they did not dig rapidly. 



During the recent cold spell these clams 

 of tender age, being the young crop of the 

 last three years and with shells not ex- 

 ceeding three inches in diameter, were so 

 chilled or frozen during the few hours 

 they were left exposed in the wet sand 

 while the tide was out that they were 

 unable to dig in with the flow of the tide, 

 and were ignominiously cast high on the 

 beach, where, with muscles too near fro- 

 zen to keep their shells from gaping, they 

 fell easy prey to the gulls and pelicans, 

 which came from far and wide to the 

 feast. 



The damage to the young crop of clams 

 has been very great. But, serious as is 

 this loss, it is not nearly so serious as 

 the destruction to these immature clams 

 caused by summer visitors to our beaches 

 digging them for food and sport in viola- 

 tion of the law, which prohibits their cap- 

 ture until they have developed shells 4f 

 inches in diameter. It is unfortunate that 

 the best beaches for Pismo clams are also 

 our best pleasure beaches, where the 

 people congregate in great numbers each 

 summer. It is natural to dig in the sand, 

 and if there is a prize to dig for, even if 

 it be a very small clam, it seems to add 

 fascination, and the chance of being 

 caught by a game warden appears to lend 

 excitement to the sport. Only once in 

 the memory of the oldest inhabitant has 

 extreme weather killed the young clams, 

 but destruction of the young crop always 

 exposed to thoughtless pleasure seekers 

 takes place every year, and is far more 

 serious. 



The Fish and Game Commission has 

 been warned by Professor Weymouth that 

 destruction to the young crop of clams in 

 violation of the law is more serious by 

 far than the recent destruction by cold 

 weather, or even the operations of profes- 

 sional clam diggers, at whom the local 

 clam conservationists have been pointing 

 their fingers. The matter is so serious 

 that even the prohibiting of professional 

 digging and the sale of clams may not 

 save the Pismo clam from becoming ex- 

 tinct in California, unless the public 

 learns the importance of protecting the 

 undersized clams. Legal-sized clams can 

 be found at extreme low tide, or, if one 

 wishes really exciting sport, let him go 

 into the surf after them with a clamming 

 fork. 



FISHERIES CONFERENCE MEETS AT 



SAN PEDRO. 



In January the scientific staff of the 



California State Fisheries Laboratory at 



San Pedro held a conference to discuss 



the program which is designed to prop- 

 erly care for the fisheries of the State of 

 California, particularly the great sardine 

 fishery which has arisen within the last 

 five years and which in 1919 produced 

 154,000,000 pounds of food fish. 



So recent has been the origin of this 

 great fishery that nothing is yet known 

 about the permanence of its supply of 

 fish. Fishes of the group to which the 

 sardine belong show great fluctuations in 

 abundance, at times being so scarce as to 

 greatly limit the fishery for them, at 

 others being in enormous abundance. The 

 scientists of the State Fisheries Labora- 

 tory have planned their work to provide 

 information concerning the possibility of 

 such great and disastrous changes, which 

 will be studied according to the most re- 

 cent methods developed in Europe by the 

 International Council for the Investiga- 

 tion of the Sea, and by Norway. 



The program devised will also bring out 

 the possibilities of depleting the fisheries 

 by imposing too great a strain. It is not 

 yet known whether the fisheries on the 

 Pacific Coast are able to stand such 

 strains as have been placed upon the At- 

 lantic species of fish, but it is surmised 

 that they can not. The sardine, as do other 

 fishes, depends upon the food produced by 

 waters near the shore, where certain nat- 

 ural elements necessary to the growth of 

 their food are present. Along our coast 

 this coastal water supply is decidedly lim- 

 ited compared to that found along the 

 coasts of northern Europe, where the 

 greatest fisheries have been carried on. 

 it will be necessary, therefore, for the 

 California Fish and Game Commission to 

 exercise special vigilance to see that the 

 supply is not exhausted by reckless use, 

 such as the use of sardines for fertilizer 

 in unlimited quantities. The observation 

 of the supply is a matter for careful 

 scientific observation by biologists, along 

 lines similar to those indicated by the men 

 in session at the laboratory. 



But it has been necessary for the com- 

 mission to do more than provide such a 

 program of work, for it has become obvi- 

 ous that men specially trained for its ex- 

 ecution are necessary. Since such men 

 are not obtainable at the universities, the 

 State Fisheries Laboratory has under- 

 taken the training of students, who are 

 later expected to finish college, where they 

 are granted sufficient work and payment 

 therefor to constitute a scholarship. The 

 conference dealt with these matters, as 

 well as the program of work. 



This conference was held in the 

 splendid new building recently completed 

 for the scientific workers at San Pedro. 



