STATISTICS OF THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



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The products classified. — In the following table the value of the fishing industry 

 ni each State is shown for eight main branches into which the products may be 

 naturally divided. These are (1) the general fisheries for food and bait fishes; (2) the 

 menhaden fishery for oil and guano factories; (3) the fisheries for oysters, clams, 

 scallops, squid, octopus, and other mollusks; (4) the crab, lobster, shrimp, and other 

 crustacean fisheries; (5) the alligator, terrapin, turtle, aud other reptilian fisheries; 

 (6) the fisheries for whales, porpoises, and other cetaceans; (7) the seal and sea-otter 

 fisheries, and (8) the sponge fishery. 



Fishes proper, excluding menhaden, have a value of $21,243,000, or nearly as 

 much as rhe combined value of all other classes of products. Mollusks are worth over 

 $18,100,000. The products of the whale and porpoise fisheries have a value of about 

 $2,146,000. Closely following the cetaceans are the crustaceans, with a value of 

 $2,028,000. The menhaden fishery yields $638,668, a sum representing the value of 

 the fresh fish and not that of the manufactured products. The seal and the sea-otter 

 fisheries, worth $502,180, occupy the next position. The sponge fishery and the 

 reptilian fisheries, which complete the list, have a valuation of $438,682 and $215,000, 

 respectively. 



The States which lead in the different branches are as follows: Massachusetts in 

 the food and bait fisheries and in the whale fishery; Maryland in the molluscan fish- 

 eries; Maine in the crustacean fisheries; California in the seal and sea-otter fisheries; 

 New York in the menhaden fisheries and Florida in the reptilian and sponge fisheries. 

 The killing of an ordinary number of seals on the Pribilof Islands would place Alaska 

 at the head of that group, but in the year covered by the figures the seal catch was 

 reduced by law to about 7,500 skins. 



1 Includes District of Columbia, 



