44.— STATISTICS OF THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



By HUGH M. SMITH, M. D., 

 Assistant in charge Division of Statistics and Methods of the Fisheries, U. S. Fish Commission. 



PREFATORY REMARKS. 



The first satisfactory and reliable census of the fisheries of the United States was 

 taken by the U. S. Fish Commission in 1879-80, under the direction of Dr. George 

 Brown Goode, in the capacity of special agent of the Tenth Census. While in 1870 

 an effort was made to exhibit the extent of the fishing industry of the country, the 

 attempt was acknowledged to be a failure and the published figures are concededly 

 incomplete. The practical absence of statistical data for an earlier year than 1879 

 or 1880 is unfortunate, in that no basis for comparison exists between the present 

 condition of some of our most important fisheries and their extent even at a com- 

 paratively recent date. A knowledge of the early variations in abundance as judged 

 by the quantity of the catch is especially desirable in view of the marked changes 

 in methods of capture in late years and the agitation of the question of the threatened 

 extermination of certain fishes and other water animals. It is true that in the case 

 of a few important fisheries, as, for instance, the whale and mackerel, certain valua- 

 ble statistical data for long continuous periods have been furnished by customs-house, 

 State, and private records, but for the great majority of our prominent fisheries and 

 dependent industries and for all our minor branches no statistical information what- 

 ever exists showing their extent and importance prior to 1880. 



The comprehensive canvass of the fishing industries of the country in 1880, so 

 intelligently planned and so efficiently executed by Dr. Goode and his associates, and 

 the complete statistical information based thereon that was given to the public, con- 

 stituted an event of extreme importance in the history of our fisheries, independently 

 of the equally valuable and exhaustive descriptive reports based on the same inquiry. 

 These statistics, for their scope and form, as well as for the actual information con- 

 veyed, must remain the basis for comparison and the guide for the collection and 

 preparation of future statistical data in the United States. 



The importance of statistics in general needs no demonstration, and the value of 

 statistical information regarding the fishing industry is certainly as great as that of 

 any other branch of human enterprise. I may go even further and say that, on 

 account of the uncertainties attending the prosecution of the fisheries and of the 

 peculiar and unique conditions which prevail, there are few, if any, industries the 

 exhibition of whose extent from time to time by accurate statistics is more desirable. 



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