ECONOMICS OF THE FISHERIES 373 



1908 and the years 1929-32 and 1937-40.'*^ The period between 1908 and 

 19 1 5 is totally void, and nearly so to 19 18 or 1920. For practical purposes 

 the whole statistical history covered is therefore in two separated periods, 

 1887-1908 and 1915-1940, and some of the graphs cover, for the late period, 

 only the most dependable years, the period 1921-1940. The annual series for 

 the early and late periods were made continuous by interpolation in the void 

 years within these p)eriods. 



In preparation for interpolation the data for the various States and parts 

 of States were first assigned consistently, so far as possible, to their proper 

 regions (as they are not in the original records). This operation required 

 considerable manipulation. The total numbers of fishermen (not consistently 

 classified in the record) for the regions and years were abstracted so as to 

 exclude ''shoresmen" and men on transporting vessels (apparently not fish- 

 ing), but to include so far as could be determined all those regular and casual, 

 on vessels or boats, or inshore, who were actually engaged in fishing however 

 much or little. It is not possible to assign fishermen to the various particular 

 fisheries such as ground fish, shrimp, oysters, pilchard, food fish generally, 

 or menhaden, sponges, seaweeds, whales, etc.; such conclusions concerning 

 fishermen as are admissible at all relate only to total gross quantity and value 

 of all fishery products produced by them. 



Quantities and values of fishery products are arranged in three series of 

 tables, relating to (a) all fishery products of whatever kind, and all fisher- 

 men, (b) food fish only, and (c) oysters. 



a. All Fishery Products. The quantities and money values of all fishery 

 products of every kind for all the years canvassed from 1887 to 1940 were 

 tabulated for each region; quantities and values of seed oysters (since 1902, 

 before which time they were not consistently shown) were deducted from 

 the totals as not a proper credit to production, but the seed oyster fishermen 

 are properly left in as part of the cost of producing oysters. For the original 

 record of quantities of market oyster meats (reported up to 193 1 uniformly 

 as 7 pounds per bushel) were substituted the revised figures ^^ prepared by 

 the Fish & Wildlife Service and based on ascertained regional recoveries 

 of oyster meats per bushel in the shell. In these regional tabulations of all 

 fishery products the money values were converted to equivalent money of 

 constant purchasing power in terms of the All-Commodity Wholesale Price 



44. The 1908 canvass of the entire country was done by the U. S. Bureau of Census in coopera- 

 tion with the Bureau of Fisheries. It has been said by various students of the subject that because 

 this canvass was carried out by somewhat different methods, the results are not comparable with 

 those of other years. However, no marked aberrations of that year's canvass were noticed in any 

 of our tables or graphs. 



45. Summary pubhshed in: Status of WildUfe in the United States, Senate Report No. 1203, 

 76th Congress, 3rd Session, 1940, p. 180-181. 



