The United States Fish Commission,[1] formally known as the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, was an agency of the
United States government created in 1871 to investigate, promote, and preserve the
fisheries of the
United States. In 1903, it was reorganized as the United States Bureau of Fisheries, sometimes referred to as the United States Fisheries Service, which operated until 1940. In 1940, the Bureau of Fisheries was abolished when its personnel and facilities became part of the newly created
Fish and Wildlife Service, under the
United States Department of the Interior.
Organizational history
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,[2] and
fisheries became the first aspect of the problem to receive U.S. Government attention when
Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, a
Democratic congressmen from
New York's
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,[3] 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.[4] 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."[4]
An expansion of the Fish Commission's mission followed quickly, when insistence by the
American Fish Culturalist Association spurred the Congress in 1872 to add
fish culture to the Fish Commission's responsibilities, with an appropriation of US$15,000 to establish
fish hatcheries for the propagation of food fishes along the seacoasts and in the lakes of the United States.[4] Following this change, the commission was organized into three divisions: the Division of Inquiry respecting Food-Fishes and Fishing Grounds, the Division of Fisheries, and the Division of Fish-Culture.[5] The commission was led first by
Spencer F. Baird,[1] then
George Brown Goode,
Marshall McDonald,
John J. Brice, and finally
George M. Bowers.
In 1939, the Bureau of Fisheries was transferred to the
United States Department of the Interior,[4][8][9] 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.[8][10]
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.[11][12] 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,[13] 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.[14] In 1880, it began to collect, analyze, and publish fishery statistics.[15] 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;[16] the bulletins included detailed catch reports from fishermen and
commercial fishingport 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.[17] 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.[1]
The Bureau of Fisheries carried on the Fish Commission's research work, its scientists and researchers pioneering such concepts as fisheries
oceanography[18] and fishery products utilization research[19] and publishing a wide variety of research results in the Bureau's Fisheries Service Bulletin — published monthly from June 1915[20][21] until December 1940[21] — as well as a Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries series, an Investigational Reports of the Bureau of Fisheries series, an Administrative Reports series, Economic Circulars, Fishery Circulars, an annual Report of the Commissioner of Fisheries published from 1931 to 1939, and other documents.[22] 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.[15]
Four ships were built for the Fish Commission, including the 157-foot-long (47.9 m)
schooner-riggedsteamerUSFC Fish Hawk, which served as a floating fish hatchery and fisheries
research ship from 1880 to 1926; the 234-foot-long (71.3 m)
brigantine-rigged steamer
USFC Albatross, which operated as a fisheries research ship from 1882 to 1921 except for brief periods of
United States Navy service in 1898 and from 1917 to 1919;[23] and the 90-foot-long (27.4 m) sailing
schoonerUSFC 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,
USFS Albatross II, in 1932, and when the Fish and Wildlife Service was created in 1940, it inherited no research vessels from the Bureau of Fisheries.[24] The U.S. Government did not operate another fisheries research vessel until the Fish and Wildlife Service commissioned US FWS Albatross III in 1948.[24]
National Fish Hatchery System
When Congress expanded its mission to include fish culture in 1872, the Fish Commission laid the foundation for the
National Fish Hatchery System, opening its first
fish hatchery the same year. The Bureau of Fisheries and Fish and Wildlife Service carried on the fish hatchery program the Fish Commission began, and many of the fish hatcheries constructed by the Fish Commission before 1900 were among the 100 national hatcheries operating in 1960.[25] The
Edenton Station hatchery, established in 1899, is na example of a hatchery constructed by the Fish Commission prior to 1900.[26]
To supplement the hatcheries, the Fish Commission commissioned the steamer
USFC Fish Hawk in 1880.[27] 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.[27] She operated until 1926.[27]
Upon receiving its law enforcement responsibilities in 1905–1906, the Bureau established regional districts throughout Alaska to organize fishery protection patrols along Alaska's 10,000 miles (16,000 km) of coastline, but had no vessels suitable for such patrols in Alaska, and during the next few years relied on vessels borrowed from other
United States Government agencies (such as the Revenue Cutter Service), on chartered vessels, and on transportation that canneries offered for free to Bureau of Fisheries agents.[28][29] This approach was not satisfactory for various reasons, such as the requirement for vessels of other government agencies to perform non-fishery-related functions, ethical concerns over accepting transportation from the canneries the Bureau of Fisheries agents were supposed to regulate, and the difficulty of enforcing regulations when the local fishing and canning industry personnel warned one another of the approach of Bureau of Fisheries agents who had accepted transportation on cannery vessels.[28] Each year after the 1906 passage of the Alien Fisheries Act, the Bureau of Fisheries requested more personnel and vessels with which to fulfill its regulatory and
law enforcement responsibilities.[28] By 1911, when the Alaska fishing industry reached an annual value of nearly
US$17 million,[30] it had become clear that the United States Government needed to make radical changes in how it enforced the provisions of the Alien Fisheries Act, including funding the acquisition of a fleet of dedicated fishery
patrol vessels under the Bureau of Fisheries.[28]
In 1912, the Bureau purchased the former
cannery tender SS Wigwam to serve as its first fishery
patrol vessel; renamed
USFS Osprey[28][30] – beginning a custom of naming the boats after birds common in Alaska[28] – she was
commissioned in 1913[30] and quickly added the protection of
fur seal and
sea otter populations to her responsibilities.[30] The Bureau's first two purpose-built patrol vessels,
USFS Auklet and
USFS Murre, joined her in 1917.[31] 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,[32][33][34] 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
motorlaunches to operate on the rivers, steams, and lakes in that area.[28] The Bureau also chartered vessels to support Alaska fisheries protection,[28] and Bureau patrol boats regularly protected migrating fur seal herds along the coast of
Washington and Alaska.[28] On October 25, 1928, several Bureau of Fisheries vessels were tasked to join U.S. Navy vessels in enforcing the provisions of the
Northern Pacific Halibut Act of 1924 in the
Bering Sea and
North Pacific Ocean, with their crews granted all powers of search and seizure in accordance with the act to protect populations of
Pacific halibut.[28] By 1930 the Bureau had nearly 20 boats patrolling in Alaskan waters.[28] In 1933, it began to add
speedboats to its Alaskan patrol inventory.[28]
In 1918, the Bureau of Fisheries augmented its fishery enforcement effort with a force of "steam watchmen," temporary employees who worked two to five months a year and kept a particular area under continuous observation; they also occasionally maintained lights and protected free-floating
fish traps from drift.[35] The stream watchmen sometimes provided their own
motorboats.[35] From an initial force of 10 men in 1918, the stream watchman force – which operated in both
Southeast and
Southcentral Alaska – grew to 59 men in 1922 and 220 in 1931.[35] In addition to stream watchmen, the Bureau also employed special
wardens and operators of chartered boats to enforce fishery regulations.[35]
The Bureau of Fisheries also began to use aircraft for fishery patrols in 1929, chartering a
seaplane from
Alaska-Washington Airways to experiment with aerial patrols over Alaskan waters.[36] The aerial patrols were successful, and regular aerial patrols by Bureau of Fisheries agents using chartered aircraft began in 1930.[36] The patrols focused on Southeast Alaska,[36] and by 1939 logged an annual total of 6,859 miles (11,038 km) in 64 hours of flying.[36]
The fishery enforcement vessels and aircraft also provided transportation to Bureau of Fisheries personnel and assisted in the Bureau's scientific activities in Alaska.[28][36] In 1940, the Fish and Wildlife Service took over the fleet of patrol boats and the aerial patrol mission, and continued fishery enforcement operations, including the use of stream watchmen, wardens, and chartered boat operators. When Alaska became a state on January 3, 1959, it began to assume the responsibility for fishery protection in its waters like any other
U.S. state.[28][36] The Fish and Wildlife Service's role in fishery enforcement in Alaska came to an end on December 31, 1959;[37] on January 1, 1960, the State of Alaska assumed full responsibility for fishery protection in its waters.[29] The Fish and Wildlife Service transferred many of its patrol boats to the State of Alaska and refocused its resources on its scientific mission.[28]
Elsewhere
In 1906, the Bureau of Fisheries became responsible for the enforcement of a law intended to regulate the taking of
sponges in the
Gulf of Mexico and off the coasts of
Florida.[4] It added the enforcement of a law governing the interstate transportation of
black bass in 1930.[4] Under the Fishery Cooperative Marketing Act of June 4, 1935 — an
act of Congress authorizing cooperative associations of producers of aquatic products[4] — the Bureau became responsible for administering the act, maintaining contact with fishery
cooperatives, and advising the cooperatives.[4] In 1936 it became responsible for certain functions related to the
Whaling Treaty Act.[4]
Pribilof Islands and Pribilof tenders
On April 21, 1910, the
United States Congress assigned the responsibility for the management and harvest of
northern fur seals,
foxes, and other
fur-bearing animals in the
Pribilof Islands in the
Bering Sea,[4][38] as well as for the care, education, and welfare of the
Aleut communities in the islands, to the Bureau of Fisheries.[38] Under the protection and management first of the Bureau of Fisheries and later of the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Pribilof fur seal herd grew from 150,000 animals in 1911 to 1,500,000 in 1960.[37]
To support the local Aleut community, the Bureau initially chartered commercial vessels to transport passengers and cargo to, from, and between the Pribilofs,[38] but by 1915 it had decided that a more cost-effective means of serving the islands would be to own and operate its own "Pribilof
tender,"[38] a dedicated
cargo liner responsible for transportation to, from, and between the islands.[38] Its first Pribilof tender,
SS Roosevelt, operated from 1917 to 1919;[39] she was followed by
MV Eider from 1919 to 1930,[40] and
MV Penguin, which began operations in 1930.[41]
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,[41] followed by
MV Penguin II from 1950 to 1963,[42]MV Dennis Winn, which supplemented Penguin II′s service during the 1950s,[43] and
MV Pribilof, which entered service in 1963 and continued to serve the Pribilofs after the creation of the NMFS in 1970.[44] 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.[44]
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:
Ichthyologist, museum administrator, and prolific writer who worked for the Fish Commission from 1872 to 1888. From 1873 to 1887 organized and administered the
biological and fishery development research of the Fish Commission and ordered and developed the
taxonomic and ichthyologic work of both the Fish Commission and the
Smithsonian Institution. Left the Fish Commission in 1888 to become an assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.[48]
Retired
United States Navy officer with a sound administrative ability and a keen interest in the propagation of
salmon on the
United States West Coast.[49] Reoriented the Fish Commission's priorities around the propagation of commercially important
species.[50]
Physician, educator, ichthyologist, and writer who worked for the Fish Commission and Bureau of Fisheries from 1886 to 1922. Directed the Fish Commission's scientific research from 1897 to 1903 and was deputy commissioner of fish and fisheries from 1903 to 1913. After leaving the Bureau, served as the first director general of
Thailand′s Department of Fisheries,[52] then as curator of
zoology at the Smithsonian Institution.[53]
Fish culturist employed by the Fish Commission and Bureau of Fisheries from 1897 to 1934. Noted for his leadership as commissioner in protecting the American
fishing industry and fish
spawning grounds, especially the rehabilitation of depleted fishery resources in the
Columbia River and the
Territory of Alaska, as well as Alaska's
fur seal resources.[54]
Deputy Commissioner Jackson served as acting commissioner between the departure of Frank T. Bell and the abolition of the Bureau of 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
Grampus,
Red Wing, 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 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)
^"BOWERS, George Meade (1863-1925)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774 to present. U.S. Senate Historical Office. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
^"ประวัติกรมประมง" (in Thai). Department of Fisheries. Retrieved 11 June 2016.