33.-REMARKS ON THE MAINTENANCE AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE 



AMERICAN FISHERIES. 



BY HUGH M. SMITH, M. D., 

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



Address as Chairman of the Fisheries Section of the World's Fisheries Congress, 

 Columbian Exposition, Chicago, October iS, 1893. 



In opening this session of the Fishery Congress devoted to the commercial 

 fisheries, the apparatus and methods of fishing, and the utilization and handling of 

 fishery products, I desire, in the short time I shall occupy before proceeding to the busi- 

 ness of the meeting, to invite your attention to a few thoughts regarding the general 

 field which lies open for our consideration, and to point out some of the important 

 questions with which those interested in the prosecution, maintenance, and regulation 

 of the economic fisheries have to deal. I shall speak chiefly with reference to the 

 preservation of our fisheries and to certain benefits which may be expected from 

 changes of methods and means of capture and utilization. 



Conspicuous instances now exist of the general or local decline, failure, or threat- 

 ened exhaustion of some of our important river, lake, shore, and ocean fisheries. 

 Among the river fishes whose present extent is markedly less than at an earlier period 

 are the sturgeon and the Chinook salmon ; of the lake fishes which are notably scarcer 

 than formerly are the whitefish and sturgeon ; lobsters and terrapins, among the shore 

 fishery objects, have undergone a serious diminution in abundance; and the ocean 

 fisheries for whale and mackerel are, as is well known, much less valuable than they 

 were a few years ago. In nearly all these cases the decrease is undoubtedly due to 

 unwise and wasteful methods, and it is an open question whether the decline in 

 many of our sea fisheries may not be at least partly attributable to the same cause. 



In view of the increasing importance of our fisheries as a source of national wealth 

 and food supply, it is not especially remarkable that the present period should be 

 characterized by a deeper appreciation of the necessity for preserving our natural 

 fishery resources, a more determined effort to ascertain the conditions prevailing and 

 the influences operating, and a fuller realization of the urgent need of more definite 

 knowledge regarding many of the phases of the fisheries than have existed at any 

 previous time in the history of this industry. 



The present time is also marked by a wonderful spirit of progress in fishery 

 methods and an assiduous search for improved appliances. Forms of apparatus, types 

 of vessels, methods of capture and utilization, which a very few years ago were 

 employed are giving place to improvements directed to an increase of the catch, a 

 reduction of the labor, and a mitigation of the hardship and danger of fishing. 



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