In Alaska the Service continued its program of management of the fishery resources, including fur seals and other marine mammals, to carry out the conservation policies of Congress, as expressed in basic legislation.

During 1943, fishery management personnel were able through careful observations of fishery runs and escapements throughout the Territory to recommend an aggregate of 119 days of extra fishing time for all districts, as well as a catch quota increase of 6,250,000 pounds of herring in the Kodiak_region, with the assurance that the future supply of the resource was not endangered thereby. Fishery products amounting to 332,719,560 pounds with a value of $66,516,317, an increase of 8 percent in quantity and 18 percent in value over 1942, were produced during the year.

Extensive vessel and small-boat patrol of the fishing grounds, supplemented by a limited amount of airplane patrol, was made by regular and seasonal employees of the Division of Alaska Fisheries, and by wildlife agents of the Alaska Game Commission deputized to assist in enforcement of fishery laws and regulations. Effectiveness of the patrol is indicated by the fact that 234 persons were arrested for violations during 1943, as a result of which $14,405.70 in fines were levied, confiscated fish were sold for the account of the Government for a total of $11,179.30, and 12 nets of illegal size were seized.

Fur-seal operations at the Pribilof Islands were limited to about 5 months in 1943, during which time a special sealing party visited the islands, then under military jurisdiction, for the purpose of removing surplus male seals from the herd, investigating results of pup branding and tagging activities during 1940 and 1941, and producing oil and meal from as many carcasses as possible. During the course of operations 117,164 sealskins were taken in the largest number obtained under controlled conditions in any one season, and substantial quantities of oil and meal were produced.

The annual census and computation of the fur seal herd showed an increase of 5.24 percent as of August 10, 1943, with a total of 2,720,780 animals in the herd as compared with 2,585,375 in 1942.

The Service feels that conservation requirements of the fisheries in Alaska were met to the fullest extent possible under existing conditions in 1943.

Since the outbreak of hostilities, the general public has realized more than ever before the tremendous value of this country's fishery resources. Although the amount of nutritious food that can be produced ranks foremost in importance at the present time, psychologists have also recognized the recreational value of fishing in connection with the strain of war production and mental readjustment. In our war program of concentrating on producing the fishes that contribute most directly to the food supply, it has been necessary to make further curtailment in activities at certain hatcheries and shift experienced personnel and funds to other units. While the salmon hatcheries receive priority, all of the stations on a productive basis are contributing to the war program in some manner. As stated in last year's report, those stations that provide fish for stocking remote recreational areas were closed. All of these units are still closed; in fact, there has been relatively little change in the actual hatchery line-up since the last report. The Cheraw, S. C., hatchery (on land formerly owned by the National Park Service) was transferred to the Fish and Wildlife Service during the early part of this year. A formal agreement was entered into between this Service and Orangeburg County, S. C., covering the operation of rearing ponds owned by the county. While the Service had been cooperating in handling these two fish-cultural units, the changes enumerated above made for more efficient operation of the stations. The production of these hatcheries and the Federal hatchery at Orangeburg will be sufficient to take care of the requirements for warm-water fishes to stock South Carolina waters. Activities at the St. Matthews, S. C., unit, therefore were discontinued.

The output of fish and fish eggs from Federal hatcheries during the calendar year 1943 was 6,894,979,150. This represents a decrease of 11.8 percent from the production during 1942. The deficiency is largely attributed to the decline in the number of pollock eggs and flounder fry handled. In fact, the difference between the output of these two species in 1943, as compared with 1942, offsets the difference in the grand totals for the 2 years. There were increases in the output of lake trout, steelhead trout, Atlantic salmon, and landlocked salmon. Striped bass were again handled by the Weldon, N. C., unit in cooperation with the North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development. Because of inability to collect the eggs, no striped bass were propagated during the preceding

year.

Stocking of more isolated waters has been discontinued or reduced and emphasis has been placed on the rearing of legal-sized trout for stocking waters accessible

to centers of population. Since travel to more distant waters has been restricted there has been a tremendous increase in the demand for large trout to provide urban trout fishing. Therefore, the production of brook, rainbow, Loch Leven, and cutthroat trout was curtailed in number with a corresponding increase in the size of the fishes liberated.

Lobster and terrapin productions were on a par with that for the preceding year. A portion of the output of terrapin was utilized in the stocking of areas on national wildlife refuges. The output of largemouth black bass was 11.7 percent greater than in 1942, and the production of sunfishes increased more than 53 percent over the previous year. These are the principal fishes that are utilized in stocking farm ponds. There was also an increase in the output of catfishes.

In cooperation with the Department of Agriculture, the Fish and Wildlife Service has been increasing its efforts to produce more food through the farm fishpond program. During the war the value of a properly constructed and managed farm pond for multiple purposes has been fully demonstrated. The farm fishponds are producing thousands of pounds of edible fish annually but because of the restrictions upon the heavy equipment used to construct the impoundments the program, although extensive, has not as yet reached its peak. When conditions return to normal it is anticipated that in some States 45 percent of the farms will have one or more farm ponds.

In addition to furnishing the initial stock of fish for these ponds there has been an increasing demand for technical information on the construction of ponds and the application of management principals. The publications entitled "The Construction of Farm Ponds," "Fertilization of Farm Ponds," and "Farm Fish Ponds and their Management" are extremely popular among farm pond owners. The latest Fishery Leaflet on this subject is entitled "An outlet gate for farm fishponds." Analysis of the records regarding the fish furnished for stocking farm fishponds reveals that 4,175 plants, totaling 3,177,650 fish, were made in farm fishponds during 1943. Of this number, 2,627 plants, totaling 2,003,000 fish, were made in farm ponds constructed under the auspices of the Soil Conservation Service. This figure equals approximately three times the number of fish furnished the Soil Conservation Service cooperators during any previous calendar year for planting in farm ponds. Through the cooperation of the Agricultural Extension Service, 150,000 warm-water fishes were planted. Since the Service has entered into agreements recently with the agricultural extension services of Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Arkansas, it is expected there will be a tremendous increase in the number of farm ponds stocked through the cooperation of that agency. More than 1,000,000 fishes of various species for initial stock were provided directly from Federal hatcheries to farm pond owners. During July of this year the Service received requests for the stocking of over 1,200 individual farm ponds.

The Service is concentrating on the propagation of Pacific salmon. This is not only a wartime function, but an important element in support of permanent national food production. The outstanding features have been the operation of the Leavenworth, Wash., unit and its auxiliaries at Entiat and Winthrop in the Columbia River watershed, and the initiation of increased propagation work on the Sacramento River. The former program is a component of the general program for perpetuating the Columbia River salmon run, which was brought about by the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam. The activity is a combination of large-scale artificial propagation and relocation of the runs into new spawning areas. A 4-year cycle has elapsed since the activity started, and returns have indicated that it has achieved a considerable measure of success. However, it is recognized there is not yet final assurance that the outcome will be completely successful. In addition, other salmon hatcheries located in Oregon and Washington have continued in operation on a normal basis with efforts being made to increase the production. In California the construction of the Shasta Dam posed a problem similar to that arising in the Columbia River. The attempted solution has been similar, except that there has been even greater recourse to artificial propagation due to a scarcity of suitable streams below the dam to which the runs could be diverted. Here, too, the program has been a combination of biological management and artificial propagation. The hatchery phase revolves around the extensive fish-cultural plant at Coleman, which unit had an output of 8,246,988 fingerling chinook salmon weighing 22,047 pounds during its first season. Operations at this point will expand materially.

The Service has cooperated with the War and Navy Departments in providing angling for members of our armed forces and furnishing fish in certain sections to control mosquitoes. During 1943 over 210,000 fingerling and legal-sized game fish of 9 different species were supplied for stocking waters on areas under the control

of the War and Navy Departments. Some of these fish were legal-sized and were planted in waters accessible to members of our armed forces who were convalescing in hospitals.

Attached is a table which indicates the production of Federal fish hatcheries for 1943, showing the location and status of such units.

Summary, by groups, of the output of fishes and eggs during the calendar year ended Dec. 31, 1943

Food production and conservation were materially aided through the cooperative predator and rodent control program of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Thousands of cattle, sheep, and poultry were saved from destruction by coyotes, wolves, and bobcats because of the operation of extensive predator control projects.

The control of prairie dogs, ground squirrels, jack rabbits, field mice, rats, and other injurious rodents was a vital factor in protecting range forage, cultivated crops and processed foodstuffs from destruction and despoilation by these pests. The effectiveness of organized predator and rodent control in providing protection to strategic national food resources is illustrated by the following:

One of the Service's predatory animal hunters in Presidio County, Tex., provides protection from predators to 39,000 sheep and 1,000 goats on 7 ranches. During the past year he took 30 bobcats and 28 coyotes and the total depredations on these ranches amounted to only 11 sheep killed by bobcats and coyotes.

In Crane County, Tex., ranchers report that predator control has made possible an 80-percent lamb crop instead of a 40-percent crop.

Previous to organized ground-squirrel control in Flathead County, Mont., the loss to wheat, oat, bailey, and truck crops amounted to 3 percent annually be

cause of ground squirrel depredations. Organized control against these pests, costing $6,200, effected a net saving in crops amounting to approximately $48,600. In Marshfield, Oreg., $25,000 worth of food and other merchandise was saved during the past year through organized cooperative rat-control work.

Assistance was given in controlling rabies among foxes in the South and among coyotes in the Southwest where domestic livestock have died after being bitten by rabid infected predators.

There has been a heavy demand for increased rat control throughout the country to provide further badly needed protection to foodstuffs in warehouses, and to livestock feed and poultry on the farms.

The Fish and Wildlife Service continued to cooperate with the Army and Navy to control field rodents and rats on military reservations as a subsistence protection measure and also to alleviate a threat of rodent-borne diseases.

The Service cooperated with the Foreign Economic Administration, War Production Board, and others in obtaining supplies of red squill, an important raticide, from the Mediterranean areas. Until recently, imports of this material were completely shut off because of war conditions in the Mediterranean theater. Control operations were hampered to a considerable degree because of the war. There is a shortage of trained predatory animal hunters and a lack of adequate automotive and other necessary equipment with which to conduct the work. Despite these handicaps, a reasonably high level of operational efficiency has been maintained through altering procedures and techniques in some instances and by devoting much time to the training of less experienced hunters and rodent-control

crewmen.

GAME MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES

United States game-management agents worked faithfully to obtain observance of the Federal statutes protecting wildlife. These laws include the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Lacey Act, the Migratory Bird Conservation Act, the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act, the law protecting wildlife and property on Federal refuges, the black-bass law, the Bald Eagle Act, and the Alaska game law as revised in 1943.

These sixty-odd agents, trained to prevent crime, worked singly or in cooperation with State officers and United States deputy game wardens, and obtained 1,985 convictions resulting in fines and costs of $62,357.39, and jail sentences that totaled 462 days. Serious commercial violations were held to a minimum by constant vigil in areas likely to be troublesome.

In Alaska the wildlife agents of the Service operated three salt-water patrol vessels and three airplanes in game and fishing law enforcement work. Because of their wide knowledge of the Territory and its people, these agents were able to furnish assistance to many war agencies. Cooperation was effected in protecting the valuable sea-otter herd and big-game species from unlawful killing. Special effort was made to control migratory birds where unusual concentrations of them had threatened the destruction of valuable agricultural crops. This work was carried on by United States game-management agents in cooperation with county agents, farm organizations, and individual farmers. Methods of control included the burning of oil and sulfur to form a smoke screen through which the birds will not pass, the use of low flying airplanes, revolving electric beacons, flash guns, scarecrows, skyrockets, and other frightening and noisemaking devices, and the actual shooting of the offending birds when other methods failed to accomplish the desired results. In this connection 725 depredation and herding permits to protect crops from migratory birds were issued in 32 States during the past fiscal year.

Since the enemy submarine menace subsided, the number of wild birds and mammals imported under permits issued by the Fish and Wildlife Service has greatly increased, with 993 importation permits being issued during the past year compared to 751 for 1943. More than 8,000 monkeys, used mostly in medical research, were included in the approximate figure of 11,000 animals and 17,000 birds entered under permits. Although the importation of the mongoose for any purpose is prohibited, 2 were smuggled into the country. They were discovered, however, seized, and destroyed by the United States Customs Service. A permit was obtained for the entry of a brown bear which was presented to the United States Government by the Russian Army. It was brought in by airplane and is now on exhibition at the National Zoological Park in Washington, D. C.

Permits issued to propagate waterfowl numbered 296, bringing the outstanding total to 3,563. Permittees raised 58,211 waterfowl, of which 19,770 were sold for food purposes and 6,659 were liberated.

One shore whaling station was licensed at Fields Landing, Calif. The license fee for the station and its three killer or catcher boats is $1,250.

Game agents reported that the number of hunters was nearly normal, but hunting pressure was greatly reduced because of restricted travel, the shortage of ammunition, and combined war activities. With the return of peace, however, hunting pressure is likely to be exceedingly heavy, so therefore a good supply of game must be available for the men and women who have served the Nation so well to win the war.

WILDLIFE-REFUGE MANAGEMENT

With a field force reduced to a skeleton because of the manpower shortage, the Fish and Wildlife Service is now administering 279 national wildlife refuges which have a total of more than 17,600,000 acres.

In general, satisfactory conditions prevailed for the increase of the waterfowl population during the past year. Plenty of water and a successful nesting season made high production possible. The population of migratory waterfowl, estimated during the spring of 1944 as 125,350,000 birds, was probably the greatest since the early 1920's. At least a fifth of these birds was reported using the wildlife refuges.

Substantial contributions to the war program were made by the production of food, furs, and other essentials on the refuges. The increase in food production was achieved in cooperation with local farmers and ranchers who were permitted to use available refuge lands to supplement their own for haying, grazing, and farming activities.

The increase in demand for forest products, such as pulp, posts, ties, firewood, and lumber, provided an opportunity to improve timbered areas for wildlife, and a considerable volume of these materials was removed from refuges as a management feature.

When the importation of kapok, used in life preservers, sleeping bags, mats, and pads was cut off by the war, it was discovered that the fully ripened seed heads of cattails appeared to be the best substitute. National wildlife refuges proved to be among the best sources for this cattail fluff. The 70,000-acre Mud Lake National Wildlife Refuge in northwestern Minnesota was opened to the local residents for harvesting this crop, and their income from the fluff amounted to $34,050.

Revenues from the economic uses of the national wildlife refuges showed a considerable increase over the past few years, and during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1944, approximately $250,000 was deposited in the Federal Treasury from this source, one-fourth of which is returned to the counties for schools and roads. To take care of the War and Navy Departments' land requirements, the Service turned over additional lands during the year to these agencies. Approximately 1,800,000 acres of refuge lands are now being used for bombing ranges, aerial gunnery ranges, training grounds, air bases, docking facilities, and as sites for chemical war munition plants.

Fire protection of refuge lands was given added impetus as a result of the heavy demand for strategic materials and, in order to protect valuable grazing and wildlife lands from fires, special funds were provided under the appropriation "Fire protection of forests, forest industries, and strategic facilities (national defense).” Where circumstances permitted, refuge waters were managed for fish production. Consequently, more use was made of their fishing waters than ever before. Recreational fishing totaled 149,941 man-days and resulted in the taking of 760,511 fishes. An additional 964,432 pounds of rough fishes were removed by

commercial fishermen.

The following areas were established as national wildlife refuges during the year: Box Butte, a reservoir of 2,210 acres in Dawes County, Nebr., a part of the Mirage Flats reclamation project, for the protection of migratory waterfowl (public land order, October 30, 1943); Mesilla, an area of 500 acres in Dona Ana County, N. Mex., and El Paso County, Tex., as a resting area for migratory waterfowl (public land order, April 6, 1944); Monomoy, a 3,000-acre peninsula located on Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Mass., one of the finest wintering concentration areas for waterfowl along the New England coast; Santa Ana, consisting of 1,886 acres in Hidalgo County, Tex., acquired on September 1, 1943. This latter area is the best remaining habitat on the American side of the Rio Grande for the chachalaca, white-winged dove, white-fronted pigeon, and red-billed pigeon, and will also provide a refuge for black-bellied tree ducks.