UC San Diego Library – Scripps Digital Collection

Catch Bulletins provide records of California's commercial fishery landings and their value to fishermen. This report for 1959 is the 19th in the series. Prior records have been published regularly beginning with those for 1926 and 1927.

Bulletin titles have varied slightly through the years, reflecting the increasing importance of marine species as fresh water catches dropped to insignificance. The first 15 bulletins, for the years 1926 through 1952, were entitled, "The Commercial Fish Catch of California" but since 1953 they have been entitled, "The Marine Fish Catch of California."

In recent years, a need has arisen for faster publication of catch statistics. Consequently, figures will henceforth be published annually instead of biennially.

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 10 years, methods and equipment have been modified to accelerate production but the basic principles have remained unchanged.

California's commercial fishery records system is based on complete enumeration of the catch. Each fish dealer makes a quadruplicate record of every catch he receives from fishermen and one of these is promptly sent to the Department of Fish and Game. This insures greater accuracy than any known sampling plan. Within the department, many individuals expend considerable effort to insure completeness of basic records. Published figures are of national and international concern and are used by fisheries scientists, legislators, chambers of commerce, members of the fishing industry, educators and others.