~ 2 f< 
REPORT OF THE FISH AND GAME COMM ISSION. 51 
It has usually been the custom of those gathering fishery statistics to 
judge the trend of a fishery by the total annual catch without taking 
into account the number of boats fishing or any of the other factors that 
enter in. If individual boat catches are not taken into account, a species 
of fish may be subjected to over-fishing and yet the total annual catch 
will still show an inerease. Over-fishing is shown much earlier in the 
decreased catch of individual boats and in most cases by a growing 
scarcity of the larger and older fish. Over-fishing is not shown by a 
decreased total catch until the damage is already done and frequently 
done beyond repair. 
The halibut fishery of the North Pacific had been carried on inten- 
sively without regulation. Each year saw an increase in the total catch 
and each year a higher price was paid for the fish and more boats were 
engaged in the business. Even the United States Commissioner of Fish- 
eries gave it as his opinion that the banks were inexhaustible despite the 
fact that the Atlantic halibut banks had been depleted. A recent care- 
ful statistical study of the halibut fishery,* made at a time when the 
total catch was on the increase, demonstrated beyond a doubt that there 
was serious over-fishing and that the fishery was urgently in need of 
regulation. This study showed that the number of fish caught per unit 
of fishing year was fast decreasing. Also that there was a rapid 
decrease in the size of the fish, both of which facts show depletion. 
Since that time the total catch has fallen off. 
The salmon supply of Puget Sound and the Frazer River was for 
years considered inexhaustible and many millions of dollars were 
invested in catching and canning the fish. Depletion of the fish was not 
recognized by the industries until they were facing bankruptcy, even 
though a warning was given by the Commissioner of Fisheries for Brit- 
ish Columbia, whose investigations showed that not enough salmon were 
escaping the traps and nets during the “‘lean years’’ to properly seed 
the spawning beds. The companies, however, who had invested go 
heavily, opposed a radical restriction of the catch and hung on with the 
hope that by some phenomenon the runs would inerease, and that on 
each fourth or ‘‘big year’’ they could make up for the deceased eatch of 
the other years. ‘Then came the big year of 1913 in which a huge rock 
slide in the Frazer River prevented all but a very few salmon from 
reaching the spawning beds. The fish resulting from the eggs deposited 
on the spawning beds that year were due to return in 1917, the year in 
which a big run would have been expected. As had been predicted, the 
run of 1917 was a failure and what has befallen the industry is nothing 
short of a calamity. The trouble is that depletion was not recognized 
until there was a heavy investment, and the catch could not be restricted 
*W. F. Thompson, ‘Statistics of the Halibut Fishery of the Pacific.” 
the Commissioner of Fisheries of the Province of British Columbia, 1916. eae 8 
