ECONOMICS OF THE FISHERIES 401 



50 per cent) decline in numbers of fishermen and (with the Great Lakes) 

 are among the only three to show a diminished total volume of all fishery- 

 products, the smallest increase in revenue of all seven regions, and (except 

 Pacific) the smallest increase in prices of all regions. These adverse changes 

 mainly reflect the serious shrinkage of the alewife, shad, and especially the 

 oyster fisheries, of which the latter (as edible meats) for many years was 

 second only to menhaden in physical volume and by far the leading money 

 value item of the fisheries of this country, now surpassed in both quantity 

 and value by the salmons (considered as a group), and by the tunas, and 

 equalled in quantity (of edible portions) and approached in value by the 

 shrimp. There appear to be no large finfish resources in these regions other 

 than menhaden. 



The Gulf of ]\Iexico region reflects in number of fishermen, volume of 

 production, money value and prices the rapid rise of the shrimp fishery 

 which had its real beginning with the introduction of the trawl net after 

 1908. Part of this growth of the shrimp fishery is also mainly responsible 

 for the moderate improvement in the South Atlantic region. Both South 

 Atlantic and Gulf reflect the expansion in the general fisheries of both 

 coasts of Florida, the east coast of which is for statistical purposes in the 

 South Atlantic region and the west coast in the Gulf. In money value (of 

 food fish) the South Atlantic remains the least important region in the 

 country, and in physical volume of production of food fish it is about the 

 same as the Great Lakes, though, when menhaden is included, it is much 

 larger. 



Although the trend of the recapitulated figures for the New England 

 region is not conspicuously different from that of the whole country, or of 

 the whole Atlantic-Gulf region, the conditions and operations of the fishery 

 they represent underwent an almost complete transformation as between 

 the early and late periods. In 1887, of the total ground or bottom fish 

 produced in New England (all salt fish converted to fresh weights), 71 

 per cent was cod caught in sailing vessels by hand line, and 82 per cent of 

 the cod was salted; cod and haddock together were 86 per cent of the total 

 ground fish; hake, pollock and halibut brought the total to 99 per cent, 

 and one per cent consisted of flounders, whiting and redfish combined. In 

 1940, codfish was only 17.6 per cent, salt fish had disappeared from the 

 statistics; flounders, whiting and redfish together had grown from one 

 per cent of the ground fish in 1887 to 39 per cent. In 1945, this group 

 constituted 43 per cent of the total ground fish and codfish only 22.5 

 per cent. 



These and numerous other changes had no perceptible effect on the 

 orderly progress of the total yield of the New England region or of the 

 whole country. It is possible that biological changes in the relative abundance 



