288 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



second period, from 1885 to the present, has been one of 

 general decline in the amount of tonnage employed in 

 these fisheries, in spite of the upward tendency of the fish- 

 ing industry, as a whole, since the opening of the present 

 century. 



The decadence of the deep-sea fisheries of New Eng- 

 land during the last quarter century has led some people 

 to the erroneous conclusion that our fisheries and fishery 

 industries are in a declining condition. In the mackerel 

 and codfishery there has been a falling off in the amount 

 of tonnage employed, and consequently in the output of 

 these fisheries. Instances of decay might be cited in other 

 branches of the fisheries, as the menhaden industry. But 

 the development of several inshore industries and the rise 

 of new enterprises in connection with the fisheries make 

 the value of the fisheries of New England greater to-day 

 than for the past twenty-five years. 



It is not difficult to discover several of the causes that 

 have led to the decadence of the deep-sea fisheries. In a 

 word, it has been due to important economic changes that 

 have entered into the industrial life of the country at large. 

 Contributing causes to this changed condition of things are 

 the competition of fishery products from other parts of 

 our own country and Canada, the development of cheap 

 but wholesome food products of other varieties, the in- 

 crease in the pound-net fisheries in southern waters, the 

 improved methods of transportation and the rise of the 

 refrigerator car system, and the passage of legislation that 

 has favored the ready admission of food fish from the 

 neighboring British Provinces. 



The New England States held a monopoly of the fishing 

 industry of the United States down to 1850. So complete 

 was the control of the fisheries possessed by these states that 

 a history of the fisheries of the United States for the first 

 two hundred and fifty years after the inception of the 



