418 



MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



statistically since 1890 or 1908; as hard crabs, its 1938-40 volume was ten 

 times 1890 and twice 1908 at prices about constant in terms of buying power. 

 We have considered the possibility that the decline in oyster production 

 and failure of prices to rise is caused by competition from shrimp and 

 possibly crab, the former of which can be produced and sold at lower cost. 

 It may be significant that the rapid rise of the shrimp and the crab coincides 

 and is concurrent with the decline in the oyster. Table 22 shows the parallel 

 history of oysters, shrimp, crabs, and the sum of all three, in certain typical 



TABLE 22 



Production and Values of Oyster, Shrimp and Blue Crab, Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, 

 1890-91, 1908, 1929-31, and 1938-40 



* Net edible meats market oysters, corrected for average yield per bushel each State. 

 t Net edible portions of shrimp, raw, taken as 50% of reported round weights. 

 t Net edible portions of crab taken as 14% of reported round weight of hard crabs and 100% 

 of soft crabs. 



§ 26 States east of the Mississippi River, plus Louisiana and District of Columbia. 



years, by total quantities and quantities per capita, and by values in both 

 actual and 1926 dollars, allowances being made for the edible percentages 

 of the three products. As oysters decreased in quantity, shrimp and crabs 

 increased so that the total of all three is nearly but not quite constant; they 

 have not kept pace with growth of population; the total actual money value 

 of all three was constant (at least in the four representative periods), but the 



