154 



THE FISHERIES OF THE ADRIATIC, 



CHAPTER X. 

 STATISTICS. 1 



Proceeds of the fisheries. — The Austrian fishing fleet ; its distribution on the coast. — Yield of the 

 Istrian, Hungarian-Croatian, and Dalmatian fisheries. — Recapitulation. — Share of the 

 Italian boats. — Statistics of the Austrian sea-fisheries; ditto of the Hungarian sea-fisheries. — 

 Total yield. — Craft belonging to the Hungarian-Croatian seaboard. — Imports and exports 

 of fish. — Fish sold in the Fiume fish-market. 



HAVE mentioned how difficult it is to collect reliable 

 statistical data on the subject of the fisheries, wherefore they 

 can at best be given approximately, and, as a rule, it must 

 be assumed that they are under-stated. Professor Schmarda 

 estimates the value of the Austrian fisheries at three and a 

 half million florins, including the valli c/imse, or fishing 

 ponds of the lagoons. This comprises, however, the 

 fisheries of the coast of Venice, which at the time belonged to Austria, 

 consisting of about 1,000 boats of 6,000 tons burden and a crew of 5,000 

 men, but which now belong to Italy. In 1864, before the cession of Venice 

 by Austria, the Austrian fishing fleet comprised 2,340 boats of about 10,000 



1 The statistics of the Austrian sea-fisheries are compiled with commendable exactitude and 

 completeness, and, what is more, they are regularly published in the "Austria," a statistical 

 periodical of the Austrian Ministry of Commerce. Strange to say, this state of things bears a 

 favourable comparison to England, where it is a matter of great difficulty, not to say of impossi- 

 bility, to attain anything like exhaustive data on the subject of the British sea-fisheries ; and this 

 is the more remarkable, considering their great national importance, representing, as they do, a 

 value of something like twelve millions sterling, and probably more. Even Ireland has her 

 Inspectors of fisheries and Scotland her Fishery Board, both of which publish statistics in their 

 reports to Parliament, but these relate almost entirely to the salmon fisheries. As to the sea- 

 fisheries of Great Britain, it appears that the Board of Trade has no official statistics on the 



