1960

A newly recruited team of biologists, histologists, and parasitologists begin a long-term study of diseases, including MSX, of molluscs at the Oxford Laboratory.

The nation's first saltwater sport fish lab is established by BSFW at Sandy Hook, NJ. Dr. Lionel Walford is its first director.

The Boston Technology Lab is moved to Gloucester.

Seattle Technological Laboratory

Research at the BCF Seattle Technological Laboratory on composition and taste of various sharks finds wide variability in palatability between shark species.

The Bureau s northern fur seal and whale research studies are combined in Seattle and designated as the Marine Mammal Biological Laboratory.

The Auke Bay Laboratory near Juneau opens to house the Alaska fisheries research programs.

The Pacific Northwest trawl fleet begins catching bottom fish off Washington on grounds newly discovered by the BCF research vessel John M Cobb.

In February, the Honolulu Biological Laboratory makes the first successful transfer of skipjack tuna from the sea to a holding pool ashore; it is the first time that oceanic skipjack have been held for more than a few hours or have been induced to feed. In addition, albacore, bigeye, and bluefin tuna larvae, previously unknown, are tentatively identified, opening the way for studies of their seasonal and geographical distribution and abundance throughout the Pacific.

The Galveston Biological Laboratory announces significant advances in identifing specific penaeid shnmp larvae; early larvae derived from known parents were obtained for three species and comparable results are anticipated for several other species.

Bureau researchers discover extensive calico scallop fishing grounds over a 1,200-square-mile area off the Florida coast. Also 1,000,000 pounds of hard clams are taken by commercial vessels from a new bed discovered last year by Bureau scientists off North Carolina.

The New Woods Hole Lab

Woods Hole lab is completely reopened in the new buildings.

Spring dedication ceremonies open the Bureau's new Technological Laboratory in Gloucester, Mass.

Researchers at Woods Hole find that oysters suspended from rafts on cultch strings reach commercial size in less than half the time needed by bottom-grown stock in the same areas, and mortalities are less than one-fourth of those grown under usual industry practices.

A milestone in Great Lakes sea lamprey control is achieved with the chemical treatment of all lamprey-producing streams feeding Lake Superior. Treatment of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron streams to eradicate lampreys begins in cooperation with the Fisheries Research Board of Canada.

Bureau chemists demostrate the use of thin layer chromotography for isolating and characterizing chemical classes of lipid compounds in fish oils, a new basic test procedure for chemical laboratories.

An Alaska fisheries exploration and gear research program is initiated, based at Juneau. Also, the use of radioactive materials in biological research is new, and a radiobiological consultant is assigned to the BCF Central Office to advise Bureau laboratories on use of radioactive materials in biological research.

1961

Between Feb. and April, more than 220,000 inches of newspaper food column space are devoted to fish topics, of which one-third is based on the Bureau's consumer education releases to food editors.

Serological studies of the Pacific sardine show that there is a genetically distinct stock in the Gulf of California, the third sardine subpopulation to be found in the eastern Pacific.

The Bureau establishes the Tiburon Marine Laboratory near San Francisco, Calif., to conduct research on migratory gamefishes.

The Bureau's Biological Laboratory in Honolulu develops a new method for predicting the seasonal catch of skipjack tuna for the Hawaiian Islands based on the time of zero rate of temperature change of the ocean climate--the time and rate of warming and salinity change occurring during late February and early March of each year.

Exploratory research locates promising fishing grounds off North and South Carolina for vermillion snapper, grouper and scup.

The BCF research vessel Delaware tests the effectiveness of trawls with various parts made of polypropylene, finding these new nets to be more efficient than the standard manila trawls.

The first comprehensive program to study juvenile salmonid migrants in the Columbia and Snake Rivers is initiated.

Bureau research into the drastic declines of Lake Erie blue pike and walley produces evidence of marked environmental changes, including increases of chemicals related to domestic and industrial wastes. Severe oxygen depletion is found over thousands of square miles of the lake along with dramatic changes in the abundance of fish-food organisms livinq on the bottom.

Bureau researchers develop new analytical techniques to produce better fish oil fractions and devise new methods to determine rapidly the chemical components of such fractions.

The new Bureau-produced film "Fishing the Five Great Lakes" makes 20 such educational films in national distribution. Since 1946, the Bureau's educational motion pictures have earned 18 national and international film festival awards.

The Bureau begins a major study of the manufacture of fish protein concentrate (FPC), a fine powder containing essential amino acids, minerals, and vitamins necessary for human health. The FPC is viewed worldwide as a potential human dietary supplement that could combat world hunger while creating a use for under or non-utilized fishes.

In response to increasing numbers of foreign vessels fishing along U.S. coasts, the Bureau increases its surveillance efforts to ascertain possible effects on U.S. fisheries.

On August 30th, Congress authorizes construction at Milford, Conn., of a shellfish laboratory for research and training.

The Bureau's new 65-foot exploratory fishing and gear research vessel Kaho is commissioned in late October and based at Saugatuck, Mich., for Great Lakes studies.

1962

Victor Loosanoff, the first station director, moves from the Milford laboratory to the Tiburon Lab where he stayed until his retirement. The next laboratory director, Dr. James Hanks, stays with the service in that capacity until 1984.

Congress approves a marine geology program for the USGS, and a five-year geological survey of the continental shelf and slope between the U.S./Canada border in the north and the tip of Florida on the south. Although the focus of the study is marine geology and topography, scientists at Woods Hole process the benthic samples taken in this project for biological specimens. This is the first and last large-scale baseline benthic survey conducted in the U.S. Atlantic.

Formar BCF biologist/writer/editor Rachel Carson publishes her landmark environmental book "Silent Spring," drawing in part on BCF and other Federal and university studies on pesticides like DDT.

The George B. Kelez is acquired for the Seattle Laboratory from the U.S. Navy, and for the first time it allows the Bureau's oceanographic and high-seas salmon studies to be extended into the winter season.

A new fishery for royal red shrimp begins off Florida's east coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, and 19 commercial trawlers are converted for it within the year. Bureau explorations first discovered the deepwater shrimp grounds in 1956.

An active commercial fishery for snow crab develops in southeastern Alaska waters as a result of Bureau explorations.

Congress, on October 9th, authorizes $10 million for construction and operation of the "National Fisheries Center and Aquarium" in Washington, D.C., for fisheries research and displays.

The Bureau's foreign fishery reporting program expands, receiving regular fishery reports from about 90 U.S. embassies and consulates and the three full-time fishery attaches in Copenhagen, Tokyo, and Mexico City.

The Bureau makes it's first whale marking and observation cruise off southern California and northern Baja California to determine the condition of the North Pacific whale stocks and those pursued by the two U.S. whaling companies.

A 2-year emergency Alaska salmon research program concludes, having determined the carrying capacity of the freshwater spawning and nursery areas of the state, with a better understanding of the Pacific salmon runs and their management, and with data needed for renegotiation of the International North Pacific Fisheries Convention in 1963.

The Bureau's first winter high-seas salmon survey cruise in the North Pacific finds a significant concentration of immature red salmon in a broad area about 200 miles south of Kodiak Island and helps toward understanding the distribution and survival of salmon at sea. Methods are also developed to distinguish between North American and Asian pink salmon.

Bureau scientists at the La Jolla Laboratory studying the early development of fishes use a temperature-gradient block to study the development of one group of fish eggs at 18 diHerent temperatures simultaneously.

The new Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass., is dedicated on June 23nd. The 3-story building has 24,000 square feet of floor space devoted to wet laboratories, as well as other laboratories, offices, a scientific library, and a conference room. A second building houses maintenance facilities and an aquarium.

Several insurance underwriters offer a 5% reduction in protection and indemnity insurance premiums for all New England fishing vessels that install new trawl wire level-winders on the main winches of the vessels as a result of the Bureau s fishing vessel safety program.

A new 187-foot research vessel, the Albatross IV, is delivered to the Woods Hole Laboratory in November; a contract is also awardad for another new 158-foot vessel to be named the Townsend Cromwell for use in the central Pacific.

New shellfish genetics research begins at the Bureau's Milford Conn. Biological Laboratory, and the goal is to produce strains of oysters and clams with better growth ratas, disease resistance, and market qualities.

1963

The cooperative shark tagging program of the NEFC begins, with about a dozen volunteer taggers. Today the program has several thousand volunteers worldwide and is the source of most of the data collected on the migration, reproduction, growth, longevity, and exploitation in the Atlantic.

Russians Welcomed to Woods Hole

1963-1977--The era of aggressive prosecution of fisheries by factory trawlers in the NW Atlantic and an equally active era for the cooperative research projects between NEFSC scientists and those of the other nations involved in ICNAF. During this period, NEFSC staff took part in more than 200 at-sea research projects, on 40 different vessels, representing 8 nations.

The NEFC autumn bottom trawl surveys begin. These are the source of the longest continuous time series of marine research vessel sampling data in the world. For the finfish survey, about 300 sites are randomly chosen in waters 2 to 200 fathoms deep off the NE U.S. from the Gulf of Maine to Cape Hatteras. Spring surveys are added in 1968.

Groundbreaking ceremony is held for the new BCF Fishery-Oceanography Center in La Jolla. Calif.

The 565-ton Townsend Cromwell. a 158-foot reseanch vessel, is completed. It has a top speed of 13.5 knots, a 10,000- mile cruising range, and can perfomm a wide variety of scientific missions anywhere in the world s oceans and under most severe weather and sea condions

U.S. biologists are placed on some Japanese trawlers and factory ships in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska, obtaining data on the catch by species, area, and quantity, and on gear efficiency.

Bureau sciantists confirm the successful use of tetracycline antibiotic marking of fishes with marked adult silver salmon returning in the fall to the Clatskanie Hatchery on the lower Columbia River

Gulf gear research demonstrates that electrified trawl net can significantly improve the efficiency of commercial shrimp trawling methods.

Bureau analyses of Atlantic coast shore-station sea-surface temperature records show a warming trend which started near the turn of the century and reached a peak in the early 1950 s

Use of a chemical toxicant in Lake Suerior streams reduces lampreys there by over 80%, bringing a substantial increase in the average size, survival, and spawning populations of lake trout.

The Bureau participates in two international oceanographic expeditions: The International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE) and the International Cooperative Investigations of the Tropical Atlantic (ICITA).

Over 215 million pounds of fishery products are inspected and certified by Federal inspectors in 17 states nationwide. Since 1956, the Bureau has developed grade standards for 14 fishery products upon which the inspections and certifications are based.

Research programs to prevent botulism in smoked fish and salmonella are initiated when several consumers are stricken by those microorganisms.

1964

Construction begins on a new laboratory at Milford, CT. The staff occupies the new station in 1967.

The new fishery-oceanography center in La Jolla, Calif., is dedicated on October 31st. BCF s CCRL and Tuna Research Laboratory, along with the Inter-American Tropical Tuna commission (IATTC), STOR, the CalCOFI Coordinator, and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) field station per- sonell move into the new facility.

The BCF s Seattle Technological Laboratory initiates research on the Pacific whiting, then called hake, another potentially large fishery.

The Bartlett Act, Public Law 88-308, of May 20th, prohibits fishing in U.S. territorial waters by foreign-flag vessels unless allowed by treaty. Pre-MFCMA (1976) territorial waters were within 3 miles along most US coastlines.

Scientists at the Bureau's Seattle Biological Laboratory use the results of pioneering studies in serology, or blood group analysis, to identify several subpopulations of salmon in the eastern North Pacific Ocean.

A new MPDI (Marine Products Development Irradiator) is dedicated at the Bureau's Technological Laboratory in Gloucester, Mass. By processing up to 1 ton of fish per hour at 250,000 rads, scientists can study the extension of seafood shelf life by using radioisotopes to destroy the bacteria that cause food spoilage.

The first coastwide samples from the Gulf of Mexico menhaden reduction fishery are acquired, and sampling is continued through the next 31 years.

1965

Sandy Hook sportfish biologists begin long-term investigations into egg and larval fish surveys, red tide, and behavior of adult blue fish

Regular surf clam and ocean quahog surveys begin at tha Woods Hole Laboratory, providing a continuous time series of species information comparable to that supplied by the finfish survey sampling program since 1963.

After completing a BCF charter, the St. Michael fishes Pacific whiting successfully in Puget Sound, Wash., taking about 100 tons in 13 tows; it is the first commercial fishing operation for this species in the North Pacific area and the beginning of a new regional fishing industry.

For the first time in a laboratory, blue king crab,Paralithodes platypus, are raised from the egg through four zoeal stages and one glaucothoe larval stage.

Seattle Biological Laboratory scientists find scale characters useful in distinguishing Asian from Bristol Bay, Alaska, sockeye salmon, and for identifying stocks of intermingled salmon in the Gulf of Alaska from various North Amencan river systems. Pink salmon are also identified to their area of origin by scales.

The Biological Laboratory at Gulf Breeze, Fla., establishes a cooperative nationwide system to monitor nearly a dozen organochlorine pesticides using monthly analyses of clam, mussel, and oyster samples from 150 coastal stations.

An ecological benchmark of the distribution and abundance of groundfish on New England banks is completed, based on 3 years of intensive surveys with Bureau vessels.

The Bureau's comprehensive systematic and anatomical study of the giant tunas, genus Thunnus, is completed, and a study on systematics and distribution of sharks continues.

The Milford, Conn., Biological Laboratory begins a long-term study of the genetics of commercial mollusks aimed at hybridization and selective breeding.

The Honolulu Biologicat Laboratory establishes a sampling station on Palau for studies on the substantial skipjack tuna fishery in the Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands.

The Anadromous Fish Conservation Act is passed to conserve, develop, and enhance anadromous fisheries covered under international agreements and the fisheries of the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain,

RV David Starr Jordan

The 171-foot RV David Starr Jordan, a new BCF research vessel, replaces the 35-year-old, 150-loot Black Douglas at the La Jolla, Calif., research center

With an increase in the fishery demonstrated, California legalizes the taking of anchovies for meal and oil. The Bureau's research laboratory in La Jolta, Calif., shifts emphasis from sardines to anchovy.

1966

Sandy Hook staff begin studies of experimental reef fisheries

The BSFW establishes a laboratory at Narragansett, RI to take on the gamefish responsibilities of the Sandy Hook laboratory, which began to concentrate more on habitat and environment

A new law passed on November 2nd authorizes the development of economical processes for producing fish protein concentrate from unutilized and underutilized species of fish

Congress recognizes the need for a comprehensive, long-range oceanography program and passes the Marine Resources and Engineering Development Act of 1966 (MAREDA) which sets up a National Council at the Secretarial level with a 15-member Commission. Later, Congress amends the MAREDA with the Naltional Sea Grant College and Program Act of 1966.

Congress passes Public Law 89-658, extending the U.S. fisheries zone 9 miles beyond the 3-mile territorial sea, making a full 12-mile zone in which the United States will exercise the same exclusive rights in respect to fisheries as it has in its territorial sea. This is in response to the increased foreign fishing activity off the U.S. coasts.

Scientists with the Ketchikan Technological Laboratory discover a new method for peeling Alaska's pink shrimp quickly and maintaining their quality and color, thus overcoming a major obstacle to commercial production.

A biologist at the Auke Bay, Alaska, Biological Laboratory devises a new type of lightweight, simple, and inexpensive plastic driftcard to chart surface ocean currents. A patent on it is secured for the Bureau.

Bureau and contract personnel create a new model sonic tag to place inside fish. Tests on adult chinook salmon and steelhead trout at the Bonneville Field Station are positive.

The Bureau's California Current Resources Laboratory in La Jolla rears Pacific mackerel and sardines from the egg to an advanced juvenile stage in its expermental seawater aquarium.

The Honolulu Biological Laboratory completes the "Oceanoqraphic Atlas of the Pacific Ocean," providing a definitive summany of data from more than 50,000 oceanographic stations taken by various agencies between 1917 and 1964. It also describes the environment of every known and potential fishery resource of the Pacific Ocean.

The Honolulu scientists also develop evidence leading to the identification of one of the last large untouched tuna resources in the world in the Central Pacific Ocean, an intermediate size group, only a small portion of which is fished from Hawaii.

Bureau marketing personnel introduce such underutilized Gulf of Mexico species as mullet, Spanish mackerel, calico scallops, and soft clams to restaurant chains, state school lunch programs, and state institutions.

The Bureau's Environmental Oceanic Research Program in Washington, D.C., completes detailed bottom topographic mapping of the Middle Atlantic Continental Shelf and arranges for publication of the maps by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.

The first commercial shellfish hatchery opens on the Pacific coast it and nine other private shellfish farms use data and techniques derived from research at the Bureau's Milford, Conn., Biological Laboratory.

A large study is completed into conditions causing drastic changes since 1900 in fish populations in Lake Michigan. Important factors include high fishing intensity and the explosive increase in the sea lamprey population in the 1940 s.

In promoting fishery products, Bureau efforts produce over 74,000 column inches of space in newspapers and magazines with a total readership of over 300 million subscribers or purchasers. In addition, Bureau home economists develop and test 633 recipes during the year for consumers, as well as for institutional, school lunch, and restaurant use.

A new cooperative study is begun on the northern anchovy on the Pacific coast to assess the species abundance, distribution of various life stages, and rates of fecundity and mortality, to facilitate its conservation,

Programs at the Bureau s Biological Laboratories at Galveston, Tex., and Pascagoula, Miss., help deterimine the feasibility of using crewed spacecraft to obtain natural resource infommation. Particular emphasis is on determination of sea surface temperatures, current patterns, sea state, shoaling processes, bioluminescence, and productivity. Sensing devices being tested employ photography, radar, infrared, Passive microwave, and spectroscopy.

The Fur Seal Act is passed to protect the fur seal herd and administer the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea.

The Jellyfish Act is passed to protect fish and shellfish resources in coastal water, promote water-based recreation, and to control and eliminate jellyfish and other aquatic pests.

1967

Dr. Bruce B. Collette (with R.H. Gibbs) of the National Systematics Laboratory publishes a benchmark work on the comparative anatomy and systematics of tunas.

A campaigning Hubert H. Humphrey visits the Woods Hole facility, with Sen. Edward Kennedy, for a full-press walk-about.

1967-1972--Beginning of the era of ecologically-based fisheries research and management in the Northeast.

On January 9th President Lyndon B. Johnson appoints the 15 members of the Stratton Commission who immediately begin their study of the Nation's marine problems and needs.

Two southwest laboratories (CCRL and the Tuna Research Laboratory) are merged into one and the director, Alan Longhurst, also becomes EASTROPAC (Eastern Tropical Pacific) Director and launches the 4-year expeditionary EASTROPAC program which seeks to learn the distribution and abundance of skipjack tuna resources and to understand how fish distribution is related to the oceanography of the eastern tropical Pacific.

The Sandy Hook Laboratory begins studies of natural and artificial marine reefs which lead to several national and regional programs to create new artificial reef habitat.

A new $3 million 215-foot ocean research vessel, the Miller Freeman, is launched and it is designed with laboratories and equipment especially for North Pacific oceanographic and fisheries studies. In addition, several field stations are established on the Columbia River and Puget Sound.

A salmon aquaculture program is established at the Bureau's Seattle Laboratory, with a field station at Manchester, Wash., on Puget Sound. The station soon demonstrates the rapid growth of coho salmon in salt- water rearing pens from 0.3 ounces to a marketable 8-ounce size in just 6 months.

Studying immersion freezing of fish, the Bureau's Technological Laboratory at Terminal Island, Calif., finds that Freon 12 effectively preserves and maintains tuna quality and that residual levels of Freon 12 are low. Propylene glycot is also studied as a freezing agent.

Rearing of pelagic fish larvae, a problem for over a century, is improved at the Bureau s Fishery-Oceanography Center in La Jolla, Calif., where sardine, anchovy, Pacific mackerel, and more than 20 other species are reared from egg to advanced juvenile or to adult stages.

Catfish culture production, which grew from just a few thousand pounds in 1963 to 15 million pounds in 1965, gets new impetus from the Bureau s cooperative technical assistanca project which helps finance a technical assistance program for the industry in nine U.S. south central states.

Biological studies begin on the culture of four shrimp species which have been hatched and reared to postlarvae in the Bureau's Galveston, Tex., Biological Laboratory.

Biological data acquired by scientists at the Bureau s Biological Laboratory at St. Petersburg, Fla., aids in obtaining the first denial of a dredge-fill permit by the Corps of Engineers owing to the effect upon living resources and based on provisions of the Fish and Wildlife Coordination act.

The Bureau and three Gulf states begin an inventory of estuarine resources under the auspices of the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Tilefish

The Oregon II replaces the Oregon as the research vessel at the Pascagoula, Miss., laboratory. It discovers new stocks of northern tilefish in the Gulf of Mexico which average 6-6 pounds--the first evidence of commercial concentrations of mature tilefish in the region.

A series of cooperative U.S.-U.S.S.R. fishery surveys are conducted in the Middle Atlantic Bight to provide a common base to estimate stock abundance and manage the harvests. Participating are the Bureau's vessel Albatross IV and a Russian vessel likewise named Albatross.

Efforts by the Bureau and coagencies to control the predatory prey in the Great Lakes shows progress: Lake trout populations Superior increase almost 35 percent over 1960 levels.

Experiments at Bureau Technlogical Laboratories in Seattle, Wash., and Ann Arbor, Mich., show that the shelf life of perishable foodstuffs can be increased by placing them in gaseous environments that inhibit growth of spoilage organisma Different ratios of the gases CO2 O2 and N2 have been tested alone and in combination with irradiation.

A new program at the Honolu labratory is designed to increase the yeild and efficiency of the pole-and-line fisery for skipjack tuna as well as the efficency of the Hawaiian longline fishery. Efforts are also under way to develop fisheries for high-seas skipjack tuna and for fish and shellfish other than tunas.

1968

Sandy Hook staff begin a special investigation to evaluate the effects on marine life of oceanic disposal of sewage sludge. Journalists dub the study area "the Dead Sea."

Two new research units are established at Seattle's Montlake Lab to study the physiology and biocheistry fish and the effect of thermal and petroleum products (and other environmental contaminantsl on fish.)

During spring and summer, exploratory BCF fishing demonstrates the feasibility of using large steel pots to catch offshore New England lobsters in deep water, stimulating commercial fishermen to enter the fishery.

A contract is awarded in October to build a demonstration FPC plant in Aerdeen, Wash., to show the commercial feasibility of FPC and to get operating and cost data for such an operation,

Scientists at the Seattle Technological Laboratory modify a refrigerated brine technique used to freeze tuna by incorporating dissolved CO2 in it. The new technique increases the shelf-life of samon by 10-18 days because the CO2 inibits bacterial qrowth.

BCF and Japanese scientists cooperatively study several U.S. fish species as potential ingredients for surimi, a frozen fish product used in Japan to make fish sausages and fish cakes. Studied are the spiny dogfish, starry flounder, and several Pacific coast rockfishes.

Seattle Technological Laboratory researchers demonstrate that otherwise wasted proteins can be inexpensively and simply recovered from diluted solutions in processing plant effluents. Comparative feeding tests (protein efficiency ratio) indicate that the nutritive value of the complexed protein is about equal to the value of the noncomplexed protiein.

Honolulu Biological Laboratory researchers show that skipjack tuna of the western Pacific (which forms Japan's largest tuna fishery) differ genetically from those of the eastern and central Pacific, with the dividing line at about long. 155 deg. E near Marcuis Island. The discovery is based on chemical analyses of the tuna's blood systems.

The Pascagoula Technology Laboratory removes a roadblock to the marketing of snapper fillets: A newly devised chemical treatment with TDP and cryovac packaging prevents fillet and skin discoloration and curling during cooking.

Scientists at the BCF Beaufort Biological Laboratory conduct what is believed to be the largest fish tagging program in the world, tagging more than 844,000 menhaden in five areas off the Atlantic coast. The 93,000 recovered tags provide much information on the species migrations.

Scientists with the Gloucester Technological Laboratory conceive and benchtest a simple oyster-shucking procedure using microwave heating to open the shells. The technique later shows a 50% increase in shucking productivity without reduction in total meat vields.

The Gloucester Laboratory also discovers that the characteristic iodine flavor of the ocean quahog can be removed by several washings, allowing the species to be used in such products as chowders or clam puffs.

1969

Gloucester laboratory begins pioneering study of fish irradiation as a method of extending shelflife

The Stratton Commission presents its final report on January 11th and recommends creation of a new Federal entity-a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency to include initially the BCF and other Federal marine and anadromous fishery functions, the National Sea Grant College Program, and other agencies.

The first rearing of larval tunas beyond the yolk-sac stage from eggs collected in the ocean is reported by BCF scientists at the Tropical Atlantic Biological Laboratory at Virginia Key, Fla.

Fish schools are first counted and measured by sonar off California from the BCF's research vessel David Starr Jordan.

Three BCF diver-scientists participate with the U.S. Navy, NASA, and other diver-scientists in the new TEKTITE I project, spending 60 consecutive days on the ocean floor at a 50-foot depth.

Scientists at the Seattle Biological Laboratory provide estimates of growth, morality, and other data for Pacific whiting and Pacific ocean perch; this research forms the basis for the U.S. position in discussions with the U.S.S.R. to reduce its whiting fishery.

Auke Bay Laboratory scientists provide U.S. negotiators and management agencies with background data on king crabs in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. The data help U.S. representatives obtain a 48% reduction in the king crab quotas of Japan and the U.S.S.R.

The Honolulu Biological Laboratory successfully tests another baitfish the freshwater threadfin shad, to replace the native nehu. This shad is as effective as the nehu in the skipjack fishery and survives better in baitwells.

Honolulu Biological Laboratory researchers track a small tuna with an ultrasonic transmitter and find that it traveled farther at night than in daylight and was always at the surface at night-leading to the possibility of developing a night tuna fishery.

Artificial mid-water pup-tent-shaped structures placed off Panama City, Fla., in July attract commercial quantities of round scad, scaled sardines, and Spanish sardines as much as 25 tons of fish--and consistently attracting 0.5-5.0 tons daily.

The New England haddock decline since 1966, due partly to heavy Soviet fishing, is accurately predicted by BCF scientists who have studied the fishery since 1931.

A new Remote Underwater Fisheries Assessment System (RUFAS) is developed by the Pascagoula Laboratory as a remotely controlled underwater sled equipped with television and motion picture cameras which can be towed at varying depths.

For the first time ever, tuna eggs, collected at sea, are hatched in a laboratory and the young survive about 3 weeks. href="http://www.sefsc.noaa.gMiami Biological Laboratory staff collected the eggs from a sample of mixed plankton from nearby waters.

Scientists at the Ann Arbor Biological Laboratory provide data on fish contamination that lead to banning or reducing the use of DDT in some states adjacent to the Great Lakes. The studies also show that the ordinary preparation of fillets of fish such as perch produces an edible product well within safe tolerance limits.

The Bureau establishes a small environmental forecasting unit of the U.S. Navy's Fleet Numerical Weather Center in Monterey, Calif., to identify the part of the Navy's vast oceanographic and meteorological data that can be used for related fisheries oceanographic forecasting.

The Bureau and the University of California study 175 female northern fur seals found at San Miguel Island, Calif.--the first confirmed record of these seals breeding on other than the Pribilof Islands.

The first meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) is held in Rome, Italy, beginning a period ot U.S.-foreign cooperation in research on important oceanic fisheries.

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