THE COAST FISHERIES OF FLORIDA. 



GENERAL IMPORTANCE AND EXTENT. 



Fishing is one of the most prominent industries of Florida, and in 

 some parts of the State is of greater importance than any other branch 

 of business. In comparison with other States the rank of Florida is 

 tenth. Massachusetts, Maryland, Xew York, Virginia, New Jersey, 

 California, Alaska, Maine, aud Connecticut are the only States which 

 surpass Florida in the value of their fishery products, and the margin 

 between some of these whose fisheries have about attained the height 

 of their development is so small that they will doubtless be outranked 

 by Florida within a comparatively few years. 



No State has a greater variety of valuable food -fishes and other water 

 animals than Florida, and in few, if any, States do they exist in such 

 abundance and under such favorable conditions for capture. Besides 

 an immense assortment of food-fishes, there are valuable reptilian, 

 crustacean, molluscau, and other resources. The fisheries are, with few 

 exceptions, only imperfectly developed along most parts of the coast. 

 With a coast line exceeding 3,500 miles in length (following indentations 

 and including islands), the fishing is largely concentrated in a few places, 

 leaving unoccupied long stretches of coast with ample supplies of fish, 

 etc., awaiting the time when increase in population and extension of 

 transportation facilities will make new demands on the water resources. 



Florida is the only State having a sponge fishery, which is one of the 

 most prominent branches of the fishing industry. Other fisheries in 

 which Florida leads are the mullet fishery, the red-snapper fishery, the 

 pompano fishery, the kingfish fishery, and the green-turtle fishery. 

 Besides these, there are important fisheries for squeteagne, grunts, 

 minor snappers, sheepshead, groupers, Spanish mackerel, red drum, 

 and oysters. 



The principal coast fishing centers of Florida are Key West, Tampa, 

 St. Petersburg, Cedar Keys, Apalachicola, Pensacola, Jacksonville, 

 Fernaudina, the Indian Kiver region, and Lake Worth. By far the 

 most extensive fisheries are prosecuted from Key West and Pensacola. 

 The west coast maintains much more prominent fisheries than the east 

 coast, and takes precedence in the yield of every important product. 



The approximate extent of the commercial fisheries of the coastal 

 waters of Florida at the present time is as follows : 



Persons employed 6, 100 



Capital invested $1, 300, 000 



Annual value of catch $1, 200, 000 



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