58 



FISHERIES OF THE COASTAL WATERS OF FLORIDA. 



_ The oyster industry.- Oysters are found in considerable abundance 

 m the vicinity of Cedar Keys. The principal grounds are as follows: 

 Iso 4 Channel, between Cedar and Derrick keys, connecting Suwanee 

 and Waecassee bays; Pelican Reef Bar, which extends from Ko 4 

 Channel Smiles up Suwanee Bay; Fishbone Bar, which extends sev- 

 eral miles up the coast from the north side of Suwanee River: Corri- 

 gan Reef, which runs south from Cedar Keys a distance of about 4 miles 

 and Waecassee Bar, near the mouth of Waecassee River. The first of 

 these is the best and most productive ground in this entire region, the 

 beds occupying nearly 4 miles of the channel. Owing to excessive 

 tongmg, the supply has been decreasing for some years, and in 1895 

 the output was nearly 50 per cent less than in 1890. 



In 1892 a Cedar Keys citizen leased a bar about 2 miles north of 

 Cedar Keys, near the mainland, and the same year planted a number of 

 small oysters taken from the natural beds. He continued this each 

 year up to and including 1895, but suffered so much in the last two 

 years from the depredations of tongers that he was compelled to 

 abandon the business. What the tongers left on the bar were washed 

 away m the great storm of September, 1896. All of the oyster-dealers 

 and a number of the tongers are advocates of the system of increasing 

 the supply by the formation of artificial beds, and it is probable that 

 most of those interested will soon be believers in this system, as the 

 natural beds become more and more exhausted. 



In 1895 the oyster industry of Cedar Keys gave employment to 50 

 tongers ; the boats used numbered 40, valued, with outfit and apparatus, 

 at $1,040. The product consisted of 3,200 barrels of oysters, worth 

 $1,870, or 19i cents a bushel. 



The sponge industry.— Although the best sponge grounds in the Gulf 

 of Mexico are located adjacent to Cedar Keys, the sponge fishery has 

 received but little attention from the people, and in 1895 there was no 

 sponge trade in the town. A number of vessels that were documented 

 at Cedar Keys engaged in the sponge fishery from Tarpon Springs, but 

 no sponges were landed locally. In 1890 one local vessel landed 

 4,100 pounds of sponges valued at $5,000. in 1878 the business of 

 purchasing and preparing sponges was begun at Cedar Keys, but was 

 discontinued after a few years, and only spasmodic attempts to reestab- 

 lish the trade have since been made. A favorable opportunity appears 

 to exist lor carrying on an extensive sponge business at this place. 



The gill-net fishery.— This is the most prominent of the Cedar Keys 

 fisheries. More persons are employed in it than in all the other fisheries 

 combined, and the product greatly exceeds that of the other branches. 

 A very large variety of valuable food-fish is taken, although the mullet is 

 the principal species. In 1895 this fishery gave employment to 108 fish- 

 ermen, in addition to whom 39 persons were engaged in transporting 

 the catch to market; 30 of the latter, however, were in other fisheries. 

 The fishing boats numbered 48, and were valued at $1,440; the trans- 

 porting boats consisted of 15 sailboats (used in the turtle fishery) and 



