United States Fish Commission

U.S. Fish Commission (1871–1903) By the 1860s, increasing human pressure on the fish and game resources of the United States had become apparent to the United States government, and fisheries became the first aspect of the problem to receive U.S. government attention when Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, a Democratic congressmen from New Yorks 4th Congressional District, originated a bill in the United States House of Representatives to create the U.S. Fish Commission. It was established by a joint resolution (16 Stat. 593) of the United States Congress on February 9, 1871, as an independent agency of the U.S. government with a mandate to investigate the causes for the decrease of commercial fish and other aquatic animals in the coastal and inland waters of the United States, to recommend remedies to the U.S. Congress and the states, and to oversee restoration efforts. With a budget of US$5,000, it began operations in 1871, organized to engage in scientific, statistical, and economic investigations of U.S. fisheries to study the "decrease of the food fishes of the seacoasts and to suggest remedial measures." The commission was led first by Spencer F. Baird, In 1913, the Department of Commerce and Labor was divided into the United States Department of Commerce and the United States Department of Labor, and the Bureau of Fisheries became part of the new Department of Commerce. Bowers led the Bureau of Fisheries, followed by Hugh McCormick Smith, Henry O'Malley, and finally Frank T. Bell. In 1939, the Bureau of Fisheries was transferred to the United States Department of the Interior, and on June 30, 1940, it merged with the Interior Department's Bureau of Biological Survey to form the new Fish and Wildlife Service, an element of the Interior Department. Successor organizations In 1956, the Fish and Wildlife Service was reorganized as the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and divided its operations into two bureaus, the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, with the latter inheriting the history and heritage of the old U.S. Fish Commission and U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. Upon the formation of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the Department of Commerce on October 3, 1970, the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries merged with the saltwater laboratories of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife to form today's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), an element of NOAA, and the former Bureau of Commercial Fisheries research ships were resubordinated to the NMFS. During 1972 and 1973, these ships were integrated with those of other parts of NOAA to form the unified NOAA fleet. The NMFS is considered the modern-day successor to the U.S. Fish Commission and U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, and the NOAA fleet of today also traces its history in part to them. ==Activities==

The U.S. Fish Commission and U.S. Bureau of Fisheries carried out extensive investigations of the fishes, shellfish, marine mammals, and other life in the rivers, lakes, and marine waters of the United States and its territories, and its scientists corresponded widely with marine researchers around the world. The two agencies also scrutinized fishing technologies and designed, built, and operated hatcheries for a wide variety of finfish and shellfish. In the early 1900s the Bureau of Fisheries took on the responsibility for the enforcement of fishery and sealing regulations in Alaska, as well as for managing the harvest of fur-brearing animals in the Pribilof Islands and supporting the welfare of the Aleut communities of the Pribilofs. Both the Fish Commission and the Bureau of Fisheries operated a fleet of ships and boats for research, law enforcement, and transportation purposes. Research and publications From 1871 to 1903, the commission's Annual Report to Congress detailed its efforts and findings in all of these areas. In 1880, it began to collect, analyze, and publish fishery statistics. From 1881 to 1903, the commission also published an annual Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission summarizing the commission's Annual Report to Congress and correspondence; the bulletins included detailed catch reports from fishermen and commercial fishing port agents around the United States and Canada, reports and letters from naturalists and fish researchers around the United States and in other countries, and descriptions of the commission's exploratory cruises and fish hatchery efforts. Beginning in 1884, the Commission published the seminal work The Fisheries and Fisheries Industries of the United States. The commission's research stations and surveys collected significant data on U.S. fish and fishing grounds, with considerable material going to the Smithsonian Institution. and fishery products utilization research and publishing a wide variety of research results in the Bureau's Fisheries Service Bulletin—published monthly from June 1915 until December 1940 In 1937, the Bureau organized the Fishery Market News Service, which supported the U.S. commercial fishing industry by collecting and circulating information from widely scattered fisheries centers around the United States on fishery production, receipts, supply and demand, market prices, cold storage holdings, and imports and exports. and the sailing schooner USFC Grampus, which was commissioned in 1886 and operated as a fisheries research ship until 1917. The Bureau of Fisheries inherited these ships in 1903 and continued to operate a research fleet for a time, but it decommissioned its last true seagoing research ship, , in 1932, and when the Fish and Wildlife Service was created in 1940, it inherited no research vessels from the Bureau of Fisheries. The U.S. government did not operate another fisheries research vessel until the Fish and Wildlife Service commissioned in 1948. The Edenton Station hatchery, established in 1899, is an example of a hatchery constructed by the Fish Commission prior to 1900. To supplement the hatcheries, the Fish Commission commissioned the steamer in 1880. Purpose-built as a floating fish hatchery, she was intended to follow the seasonal runs of American shad up and down the coast of the United States, in addition to carrying out fisheries research duties. By order of the United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor on February 15, 1905, the Bureau of Fisheries received the responsibility for administering and enforcing laws protecting the Alaskan salmon fishery. On June 14, 1906, the U.S. Congress passed the Alien Fisheries Act to protect and regulate fisheries in Alaska by placing restrictions on the use of fishing tackle and on cannery operations there and authorizing the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries to enforce these regulations as well.—beginning a custom of naming the boats after birds common in Alaska The Alaska enforcement fleet increased further in 1919 with four former United States Navy patrol vessels (USFS Kittiwake, USFS Merganser, USFS Petrel, and USFS Widgeon) transferred to the Bureau's Alaska fleet, and in 1925 the Bureau established a district headquarters at the Naknek River for the Bristol Bay district and began to acquire a flotilla of motor launches to operate on the rivers, steams, and lakes in that area. The stream watchmen sometimes provided their own motorboats. The aerial patrols were successful, and regular aerial patrols by Bureau of Fisheries agents using chartered aircraft began in 1930. on January 1, 1960, the State of Alaska assumed full responsibility for fishery protection in its waters. as well as for the care, education, and welfare of the Aleut communities in the islands, to the Bureau of Fisheries. she was followed by from 1919 to 1930, and , which began operations in 1930. The operation of "Pribilof tenders" continued under the Bureau of Fisheries' successor organizations, with the Fish and Wildlife Service employing MV Penguin on this service until 1950, , which supplemented Penguin IIs service during the 1950s, and , which entered service in 1963 and continued to serve the Pribilofs after the creation of the NMFS in 1970. The 58-year history of the "Pribilof tenders" did not come to a close until 1975, when the NMFS retired and sold Pribilof as part of a process of turning control of the local government and economy of the Pribilof Islands to their residents. ==U.S. commissioner of Fish and Fisheries==

The United States commissioner of Fish and Fisheries oversaw the U.S. Fish Commission (1871–1903) and the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (1903–1940). The following served as Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries: ==Fleet==

The U.S. Fish Commission operated five ships. They used the prefix "USFC" while in commission. The Bureau of Fisheries inherited all five USFC ships, and its fleet expanded during the early 20th century. Its ships were given the prefix "USFS" while in commission, derived from an alternative name, "United States Fisheries Service", sometimes used for the Bureau. Although there were occasional exceptions (such as , , and Roosevelt), the Fish Commission and Bureau of Fisheries custom was to name vessels after aquatic birds. The later organizational history of the fleet paralleled that of the history of the Bureau's successor organizations. In 1940, the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) took over the Bureau of Fisheries fleet, and when the FWS was reorganized as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in 1956, its seagoing ships were assigned to the USFWS's new Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (BCF), which inherited the history and heritage of the Fish Commission and Bureau of Fisheries. When the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was created in 1970, its National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) was considered the successor to the BCF, and the NMFS took control of what had been the BCF's fleet. NMFS-controlled ships then were united with ships of other agencies to form a unified NOAA fleet via a phased process during 1972–1973. The Fish Commission and Bureau of Fisheries fleets therefore are among the ancestors of today's NOAA fleet. A partial list of the ships of the U.S. Fish Commission (USFC) and U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (BOF): • USFC (later USFS) Albatros (research vessel with USFC 1882–April 1898 and August 1898 – 1903, then BOF 1903–1917 and 1919–1924) • (research vessel, BOF 1926–1932) • (patrol vessel, BOF 1917–1940; then FWS 1940–1950) • (patrol vessel, BOF 1924–1940; then FWS 1940–1950s) • (patrol vessel, BOF 1926–1940; then FWS 1940–1953) • (patrol vessel, BOF 1928–1940; then FWS 1940–1960) • (fish culture vessel, BOF 1919–1937/1938) • USFS Eider (Pribilof tender and patrol vessel, BOF 1919–1940; then FWS 1940–1942 and 1946–late 1940s) • USFC (later USFS) Fish Hawk (research and hatchery vessel, USFC 1880–May 1898 and September 1898 – 1903, then BOF 1903–1918 and 1919–1926) • USFS Fulmar (research vessel, BOF 1919–1933/1934) • USFC (later USFS) Grampus (research and fish-culture vessel, USFC 1886–1903, then BOF 1903–1917) • (research vessel, BOF 1919–1927) • (patrol vessel, BOF 1919–1940; then FWS 1940–late 1940s) • (patrol vessel, BOF 1919–1940; then FWS 1940–ca. 1942–1943) • (patrol vessel, BOF 1917–1940; then FWS 1940–1942) • (patrol vessel, BOF 1913–1921) • (research and patrol vessel, BOF 1930–1940; then FWS/USFWS 1940–1958, NMFS ca. 1970/1971 to 1972) • USFS Penguin (Pribilof tender, BOF 1930–1940; then FWS 1940–1950) • (patrol vessel, BOF 1919–1934) • USFC (later USFS) Phalarope (research and fish-culture vessel, USFC 1900–1903, then BOF 1903–1932/1933) • (patrol vessel, BOF 1928–1939) • USFS Roosevelt (Pribilof tender, BOF 1915–1919) • (patrol vessel, BOF 1922–1940; then FWS 1940–1949) • (patrol vessel, BOF 1928–1940; then FWS/USFWS 1940–1960) • (patrol vessel, BOF 1919–1940; then FWS 1940–ca. 1944–1945) ==Gallery==