396 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



fishermen by increasing the abundance of fish would, if successful, decrease 

 their number without increasing their average income. 



The Over-all Effect of the Business Cycle on the fisheries is shown in 

 Table i6, wherein the relative magnitudes of all the variables are adjusted 

 to make 1922-23 = 100. 



TABLE 16 



Atlantic and Gulf Regions Combined: Numbers of Fishermen, Quantities of 

 Production, Values of Product, Total and per Fisherman, at High and 

 Low Points of the Business Cycle. (1922-23 = 100 in all Cases) 



In adjusting upward or downward to meet the competitive conditions in 

 the business cycle, the fisheries expand or contract a little all along the line. 

 In good times more fishermen work more hours, catch more fish per man 

 and more total fish, sell it for a moderately increased price, realize more 

 total money and more money per man; in bad times fewer fishermen fish, 

 those that do fish work less, produce less, in total and per man, sell it 

 for less money per pound, realize less total money for it and less money 

 per man, but what they do realize will buy more of other goods per dollar 

 than it would in prosperous times. 



The Regional Fisheries. The automatic self-regulation of production is 

 seen in part in the mutual accommodation among and between the major 

 regions of the country. The statistical history of the seven regions has been 

 summarized for comparison of the early period, 1 887-1908, with the late 

 period, 1921-1940; in Table 17 the figures apply to the total produce of 

 the fisheries, food and non-food, its value, the number of fishermen engaged 

 and their income; in Table 18 the figures apply to food fish only. In these 

 tables, both actually canvassed and the interpolated figures were included 

 in the averages to prevent the distortion by the unequal distribution of the 

 canvasses among the years of each period. In Table 19 the data for food 

 fish are recapitulated in comparison with population for the two periods, 

 for the Atlantic-Gulf and for the whole country. 



