The Federal Fisheries Service, 1871–1940: Its Origins, Organization, and Accomplishments

Abstract

"The Declaration of Independence does not include the pursuit of fish as one of the unalienable rights of men to be secured by government, nor does the U.S. Constitution specify the regulation and preservation of the nation’s fishery resources as an enumerated power of Congress. When those documents were drawn the right of the individual to take wild creatures for food, pleasure, and profit was not questioned, and an abundance of fish and game precluded concern for conserving what appeared to be an inexhaustible resource. It is a fact, nevertheless, that the funds and energy of the Federal government were applied to fishery problems as early as the Treaty of Paris in 1783 [which ended the Revolutionary War] and have continued to be so employed up to the present day."