REPORT OF BOARD OF FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONERS. 
21 
in a very short time result in the extermination of the species in the 
Sacramento River. 
The high price of salmon that has prevailed for the past three or four 
years has been an incentive for more men to engage in the business. 
The improved method of handling the fish and the better transportation 
facilities have given the Sacramento salmon almost a world-wide market, 
which was fully set forth in our nineteenth biennial report. The con¬ 
stantly increasing market is a most important factor in keeping up the 
price; and this induces the fishermen to extra effort, which is shown on 
the upper Sacramento, where by the removal of snags and other obstruc¬ 
tions in the river new seining grounds have been cleared off, permitting 
the operations of more nets during the spring run. This has had the 
effect of reducing the take of eggs from the summer run at Baird 
Station. We see no reason for any change in the law as it applies to the 
fall run, but it is not at all unlikely that additional restrictions may 
be necessary upon the capture of the spring run in order to permit a 
larger number of parent fish to reach Baird. As the spring fish com¬ 
mands about double the price of the fall run, such a recommendation 
would meet fierce opposition; nevertheless, if careful investigation 
shows that increased spring fishing decreases the supply of parent fish 
at the hatcheries, such additional restrictions should be imposed in spite 
of any opposition. 
At the thirty-eighth session of the legislature we recommended that 
the mesh of net with which salmon could be legally taken should be 
reduced from to 6^ inches. This recommendation which had the 
endorsement of Dr. C. H. Gilbert of Stanford University, who has 
made a very careful study of the subject, became a law. A recommen¬ 
dation on the same lines had been made by the late Cloudsley Rutter, 
who was considered one of the best informed authorities on the Pacific 
coast salmon. He found that a great many small but matured fish 
were passing through the nets and making their appearance in large 
numbers between the racks at the spawning stations, where they were 
regarded as a nuisance. It is not considered desirable to breed from the 
smaller stock. - As these fish have a positive food value before reaching 
the headwaters of streams, where they spawn and die, it was considered 
that an important food supply was being wasted, when with a smaller 
mesh net they would be captured while in prime condition for fresh 
market use. It was found that the fishermen operating in Eel River, 
also in the upper Sacramento, who use cotton nets, which were of legal 
size when new, but shrunk to 6^ inches when in actual service, were 
substituting sections of still smaller mesh. We therefore recommended 
another amendment, making it unlawful to use a net for the taking of 
salmon, shad or striped bass, “any of” the meshes of which were less 
