348 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



presented everywhere, it cannot be doubted that the national per capita 

 demand would increase. One pound per capita per year increase in edible 

 portion would be equivalent to nearly half a billion pounds of whole fish or 

 a third of the present production of fresh and frozen fish. 



Local Preferences for Particular Species. Further study of distribution 

 reveals the preference in certain localities for certain particular kinds of 

 fish. For example, mullet and red snapper, though popular in the South, 

 are rarely seen in New York; New England whiting for many years enjoyed 

 sale in only one market in the United States, namely, St. Louis, later Kansas 

 City, and still later, some of the other mid-western cities — notably in Louis- 

 ville and Nashville; cod is preferred in New York and Detroit, haddock in 

 Boston, catfish is primarily preferred in the South; "ocean perch" or rose- 

 fish seems to be preferred in Des Moines, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Mil- 

 waukee and St. Louis; flounder is popular in Philadelphia except when 

 shad is available; the Jewish population of New York is strongly inclined 

 to fresh water species — carp, perch, etc. — and the fresh water fish trade of 

 New York is almost entirely in the hands of the Jewish fish merchants. 



The geographic influences which we mentioned earlier do not explain 

 these and many other local preferences. The latter are undoubtedly caused 

 by historical events which have initially created persistent local demand, 

 but failed to be recorded and are lost to history. The catch of whiting and 

 rosefish from New England, until a few years ago insignificant or nonexist- 

 ent in commerce, grew in the past few years to a production of 175 to 200 

 million pounds, or one-fourth of the total finfish of New England (and 

 three-fourths as much as cod and haddock combined). This remarkable 

 development was certainly in part a response to a long established and 

 persistent demand for small pan fish by the rapidly growing midwestern 

 population which had overwhelmed the fisheries of the lakes and rivers. 

 It may also be in part due to a change in the relative abundance in the 

 water and in cost of production of the species concerned. Without the 

 demand the fish would not have been produced, however abundant; and 

 without the supply the demand could not have been met at costs and prices 

 that would not kill demand. A comparison of fishermen's prices for these 

 four species (rosefish, whiting, cod and haddock) shows that even after 

 allowing for the differences in recovery of edible portions (cod, haddock 

 and whiting 40-42 per cent, rosefish 27 per cent) the fishermen could ad- 

 vantageously produce these substitute species and sell them at prices to 

 the consumer lower than those for cod and haddock. This is but one example 

 of the interaction of biological and economic factors as a self-regulatory 

 mechanism, and points out the futility of attempt by public authority to 

 determine, from biological reasoning only, how much of what particular 



