NMFS Celebrates 125th Anniversary

February 9, 1996, marked the 125th anniversary of the creation in 1871 of the U.S. Commission ofF ish and Fisheries, predecessor of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service and the Nation's first Federal conservation agency. "Then, as today, Federal fisheries science was at the forefront of its field and noteworthy for its excellence," noted NMFS Director Rolland A. Schmitten, in announcing the agency's quasquicentennial observance.