402 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



of different kinds of fishes had something to do with the change in compo- 

 sition of the catch; we know that economic and technical influences did. 

 Salt fish lost favor with the public and took a place of minor importance, 

 and the whole fishery lagged to 192 1, while other foods were beginning 

 to be packaged and more attractively presented. Sail gave way to power, 

 salt gave way to ice; fuel and ice brought in new items of cost; fishing 

 therefore diminished on distant, and increased on near-by banks where cod 

 was less abundant, haddock more. In 192 1, fillets and packaging made their 

 appearance; much of the cod was too large for single-portion fillets, and its 

 name was identified in the public mind with salt fish; cod fillets were 

 therefore skinned to prevent identification, skins were left on haddock 

 fillets to encourage identification; haddock thus acquired a 3 per cent ad- 

 vantage over cod in whole weight or 7 per cent on fillet; the trade turned 

 to haddock; "quick" freezing made its appearance; chain stores began to 

 sell fish, markets in the interior of the country were opened; production of 

 haddock greatly increased and cod decreased as a result of the new demand. 



Meanwhile (to show how regions interact with other regions), the Great 

 Lakes fisheries were being more and more intensely prosecuted. 



During the half-century considered in this study, the population of the 

 mid-west grew to great proportions, and villages grew to cities at a time 

 when ocean fisheries had little access to the market. A taste was established 

 for small-sized fresh water "pan" fish of the lakes and rivers; the growing 

 population and developing delicatessen popularity of whitefish, lake trout, 

 perches, catfish, etc., put heavy pressure on the definitely limited supply 

 of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River system, and biologists became 

 alarmed by what seemed to them to be "depletion" or exhaustion of the 

 Great Lakes. The course of actual events is an example of the automatic 

 operation of economic-biological determinants. 



In response to insistent demand, prices rose disproportionately to the 

 diminishing supply so that the Great Lakes experienced the greatest rise 

 in prices of all the regions of the country, and is the only region of the country 

 to have a higher average price for its fish in terms of purchasing-power in 

 the 1921-1940 period than in the pre-1908 period; the decrease in quantity 

 of production in the Lakes was greatest (17 per cent) of the three regions 

 (the others being mid- Atlantic and Chesapeake) to show an actual decrease 

 in the amount of food fish in the late period as compared with the earlier; 

 nevertheless, in the increase in total money value of the Great Lakes prod- 

 uct, both actual and in purchasing power, and in the number of fishermen 

 still supported in the late, as compared with the earlier period, the Great 

 Lakes region (American side) is surpassed only by the Gulf (shrimp) 

 and Pacific (pilchard, tuna, salmon, etc.). The percentage improvement 

 in income in dollars of constant purchasing power per fisherman exceeds 



