316 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



seasons; some travel in schools, some move singly, some inhabit the bottom, 

 and some live at the surface. 



In the remoteness from the market of the sources of supply the fisheries 

 are at a disadvantage with respect to agriculture. Most of the world's human 

 populations are distributed around and in agricultural areas, where towns 

 and cities can be supplied with agricultural produce from the surrounding 

 countryside at relatively small cost. One need only glance at the map of 

 North Carolina, itself a coastal State, to see the advantage of near-by agri- 

 culture in supplying the industrial cities and towns with food. This disadvan- 

 tage of the fisheries is proportionately greater with respect to markets in the 

 inland States and Provinces of North America, and the inland markets of all 

 the continents. The great fisheries are all at sea, in many cases long distances 

 off shore; at the nearest, they are on the fringes of the continents. Some of 

 the richest bottoms are still too remote to be exploited, with present methods, 

 costs, market values, and high perishability, so that the presently fished 

 waters do not represent the total fishery resources of the world; the re- 

 mote grounds remain unexplored as long as those nearer by can yield their 

 products at lower cost. 



Geographical expansions and contractions of the fisheries have occurred 

 in various regions. In our earlier days most of our New England fisheries 

 were near the coast; as these became inadequate (and great fears of ex- 

 tinction arose), long-range vessels were fitted out and extensively fished 

 the Grand Bank of Newfoundland, bringing back large quantities of salt 

 fish. When salt began to yield to ice as preservative, and the steam trawler 

 replaced sail, new elements of cost were incurred, so that fishing returned 

 to the nearer-by banks. The more remote banks will again be fished when 

 and if demands and costs are again favorable. When in the North Sea fish- 

 eries of Europe the yield per unit of cost declined to a point which made 

 more distant fishing competitively possible, large trawlers were built and 

 sent to the fringes of the Arctic Ocean, so that part of the pressure on the 

 North Sea was relieved. It may be expected that the North Sea will continue 

 indefinitely to be fished to just the point of cost-price balance with the more 

 remote grounds. 



In a few places in the sea, rich fisheries are situated within reach of great 

 developed centers, such as Boston, Seattle, San Pedro in the United States, 

 Hull and Grimsby in England, Bergen, Norway, Shimonoseki, Japan, etc., 

 where shipyards build, repair and supply vessels, and organized markets, 

 freezers, canneries and reduction plants provide all the facilities for eco- 

 nomical and efficient operation. But apart from such centers, almost all the 

 waters offshore everywhere provide some fisheries which are scattered along 

 great lengths of shore line, at villages and small towns remote from con- 

 suming markets. The aggregate production of such places is or could be 



