422 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



hake, pollock and halibut combined accounted for 99 per cent of all, the 

 remaining one per cent being flounders, whiting and redfish combined. In 

 1940 cod was 17.6 per cent and the last mentioned three had risen to 39 

 per cent and in 1945 they were 43 per cent. These changes may in part 

 reflect biological changes in the fishery populations; in another part, the 

 interplay of many economic forces in the market, a part of which was the 

 competitive situation in the inland Lakes and River regions. 



In the mid-west increasing demands from a growing population bore 

 down on the limited supplies of fresh water fish; heavy fishing yielded 

 smaller returns per effort, and prices rose disproportionately, so that in the 

 Lakes region the percentage improvement in income in dollars of constant 

 purchasing power per fisherman exceeded that of any other region; it was 

 the only region of the country to receive a higher average price in terms 

 of purchasing power in the 1921-40 period than the pre-1909 period, that is, 

 41 per cent more purchasing power for 17 per cent less fish, while the entire 

 Atlantic-Gulf section of the ocean and coastal fisheries increased production 

 of food fish by 32 per cent and received unchanged (—0.8 per cent) pur- 

 chasing power money for it. 



These events indicate that insistent demand for a limited supply of fish 

 expresses itself in higher prices; that diminishing abundance of a species 

 or of a whole regional fishery is not necessarily disadvantageous to fisher- 

 men. It also appears impossible to exhaust a fishery for profit, since rising 

 prices check sales and attract competition of other fishes (as in this case 

 the fillets of haddock, cod, flounders, whiting and redfish from New Eng- 

 land) and rising costs and diminishing returns must check production of 

 the particular fishery at some point far short of extinction of any species. 



The accommodation of production to market demand is greatly facili- 

 tated by the large number of species. Tabulations in descending order of 

 magnitude of quantity and value of the leading species for four represen- 

 tative periods (1890, 1908, 1930, and 1940) show that great commutations 

 have occurred and continue to occur in the relative contributions of the 

 many species to the total product of the country; that the total as of 1940 

 consists of some 30 or more species which severally account for one per 

 cent or more of the value; that no species has been economically dominant 

 to such an extent that even drastic changes in its abundance have had any 

 discernible effect on the total quantity or value of the total food fishery 

 product. 



A study of the case histories of 21 species, mostly of the Atlantic-Gulf 

 regions, shows that they behave in a great diversity of economic patterns. 

 In some species (lobsters, lake trout) diminished production was attended 

 by greatly increased price and total real value in terms of purchasing 

 power; the total real value remained unchanged on a threefold increase in 



