UC San Diego Library – Scripps Digital Collection

Landing bulletins provide records of amounts and values of various living marine resources taken by California's commercial fisheries, and summarize catches made by the partyboat sportfishing industry. They also detail the small quantities of freshwater fish taken commercially in inland areas. These data provide the basic background for managing California's marine fishery resources. The published figures are of local, national, and international significance, and are used by fisheries scientists, legislators, educators, members of the fishing industry, and others interested in California fisheries.

This report for 1971 is the 31st in the series of landing bulletins. The first, published in 1929, contained the records of the 1926 and 1927 commercial fish landings.

California's fishery statistics are based on a system whereby fish dealers, processors, and partyboat operators send duplicate copies of their landing records to the Department. The statistical system and methods used to collect the records were fully described in Fish Bulletin 86, which reported the catch for 1950. In the intervening years, methods and equipment have been modified as conditions warranted, but the basic principles have remained unchanged.