Excerpt from Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1937: With Appendixes Observations on the condition of the haddock fishery have been continued to the full extent that limitations of personnel and equip ment permit. A continued improvement from the low level of 1930 - 31 was noted in the fishery on Georges Bank, which remains, however, far below the 1925 - 29 level. On the Nova Scotian banks the average productivity was less than during the preceding year, owing to the scarcity of haddock Spawned since 1929. As a result of the long period program of study inaugurated in 1930 it has been learned that the haddock populations on the New England and Nova Scotian banks are subject to wide fluctuations in abundance not only from year to year but to an even greater extent over periods of years. The direct cause of such fluctuations is the varying survival of the young. The combination of an intensive fishery and a succession of poor Spawning years may reduce the population to disastrously low levels, as happened between 1927 and 1931. It is further evident that the haddock populations of the various Nova Scotian banks differ mark edly from each other and from that of Georges in their variations in abundance; each therefore requiring individual observation if effective measures for the management of the fishery are to be prescribed. Direct observations over widely scattered areas of the fishing grounds to assess the abundance and distribution of young haddock below com mercial size are highly desirable, but are not practicable with present facilities. Up to the present time the fluctuations and trends in the haddock fishery have been considered mainly in qualitative terms. As a result of findings and recommendations of the Bureau, the majority of the New En land operators of large and medium otter trawlers voted to begin t e use of larger meshed otter trawls early in 1937 and to continue such use for a trial period of 6 months. Such savings gear is considered the most effective and practical measure to decrease the destruction and capture of undersize haddock. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.