404 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



fish in the lakes and rivers; in reverse, it is seen how events in the mid-west 

 reacted on the New England fisheries and explain in part the rise in pro- 

 duction of a group of species which in 1887 was onl}^ one per cent of New 

 England production, and in 1945 was 43 per cent. These and many other 

 actions, reactions, increases, decreases and accommodations occurring be- 

 tween, among, and within the regions are resolved into an orderly over- 

 all national result which pursues its own course, subject only to the cycle 

 of business activity, as if the local and regional behavior on the one hand, 

 and the national total on the other, were two entirely unrelated sets of 

 phenomena. 



The Patterns of Economic Behavior of Commercial Species. In Tables 

 53 5 54? 55 ^i^d 56, Appendix, are set up quantities and values, both in 

 descending orders of magnitude, and the corresponding prices, of the prin- 

 cipal commercial species of fish of the United States and Alaska for four 

 representative years or periods, the composite of 1889-92, the year 1908, 

 the averages of 1929-30-31 and of 1938-39-40; the tables show for each 

 year or period all species (or groups of closely allied species, as reported) 

 each of which amounts to one per cent or more of the total of either quantity 

 or value of all nine regions. These tables show some of the permutations 

 which have come about in the composition of the national total catch from 

 1889 to 1940, as will be seen on inspection of the rankings of oysters, mack- 

 erel, alewives, shad, shrimp, rosefish, pilchard, etc. 



The number of "species" which enter into the one-per-cent-or-more class 

 increased from around 20 to around 30 during the 50-year period, the 

 number of true biological species being in excess of these numbers, perhaps 

 50 during the later periods. However, if the species were strictly biological, 

 a number of them, such as flounders, and perhaps the clams and catfishes, 

 might separately be too small in quantity or value to "make" the list, as 

 the mullet failed to do in the 1930 period, and the squeteagues failed in 

 the 1939 period. Only that part of the pilchard production is here treated 

 as food fish which actually was so marketed, the remainder being treated as 

 non-food fish. Prices are arrived at here from quantities and values as 

 reported in the records; it is quite likely that some of them are truly 

 competitive prices, others as actually paid were almost purely arbitrary, 

 such as wages paid to crews of vessels and traps on the basis of amount of 

 catch, or a seasonally agreed upon price, and still others estimated by field 

 canvassers. All, however, have been treated alike herein as true values, 

 regardless of how arrived at, for calculating prices. 



Since the predominant group which accounts for five-sixths of the volume 

 and three-fourths of the value (as of 1938-40) of the national product is 

 made up of between 25 and 30 species, it is clear that variations in the 



